Downpours in Catalonia: the Firefighters are searching for a missing person in a stream in the Garraf

BarcelonaThe storm has caused a very complicated night in Catalonia, especially in the Barcelona area. At 9:30 PM, the Government sent an Es-Alert to phones in the Barcelonès and Maresme regions warning of the risk of flash floods. The Generalitat Fire Department currently has a search operation active with ten units due to the disappearance of a person in Olivella, in the Garraf region. According to a witness, a car had become stuck in a stream and a person tried to get out, ending up being swept away by the current. Emergency services have located the car, but not the person.

The torrential rain has also caused mobility problems in the Catalan capital, where it was necessary to close the Ronda de Dalt in both directions and the B-20. This also occurred in Santa Coloma de Gramenet towards Mataró, where cars were seen trapped by the floods. All of this has created a very difficult situation on the roads. At 11:00 PM, the Government sent an Es-Alert message to five more regions—Baix Llobregat, Alt Penedès, Baix Penedès, Garraf, and Vallès Occidental—warning of the risk of heavy downpours. By 11:30 PM, the firefighters had accumulated almost 200 alerts due to the storm.

Apart from the roads, the rainfall is also hindering rail traffic. Renfe has reported that lines R2, R3, and R4 may accumulate delays of up to twenty minutes because weather conditions force trains to travel at a lower speed. On the R4, service has been interrupted between Fabra i Puig and Montcada Bifurcació. It was also necessary to temporarily close some metro stations due to water accumulation, such as Sant Andreu, Fabra i Puig, and Trinitat Vella on Line 1. Regarding El Prat airport, up to 23 flights have been cancelled due to the rains. Additionally, the company's website shows dozens of delayed flights at the same Catalan infrastructure.

Flooding at Vall d'Hebron Hospital

The downpour has also caused flooding in the basements of the three buildings of the Vall d'Hebron Hospital, which also saw rain cause part of a false ceiling to collapse in the pediatric nephrology ward, with no reports of patients being affected so far. As a precaution, some transfers to other areas have taken place.

The storm—which was accompanied by lightning and thunder—has also left 570 subscribers without electricity in the Catalan capital. Sources from the electric company Endesa explained to the ACN that company workers are working to resolve the situation as soon as possible. Civil Protection indicated on the X network that at the moment of maximum intensity, the rain caused six incidents in the electricity supply that affected 7,696 users. Once this moment passed, which lasted a short time, service was restored for the majority of those affected.

The changing scenario has meant that throughout the evening, warnings from the Meteorological Service of Catalonia have been issued one after another. At 8:30 p.m., the Meteorological Service of Catalonia issued a warning for violent weather with the possibility of hail larger than two centimeters, wind gusts of more than 25 meters per second, and the possibility of downbursts, tornadoes, or waterspouts in the Baix Llobregat and Garraf regions. Fifty minutes later, the warning was for the Barcelonès and Maresme areas, where according to Meteocat there may be torrential rains that could leave more than 40 millimeters in 30 minutes. The storm is now moving towards Alt Penedès and Anoia, where Civil Protection has also warned of the risk of hail, wind gusts exceeding 90 km/h, downbursts, and tornadoes.

Before, the storm had made its presence felt strongly in the Gironès region, where the rains have left more than 40 liters per square meter in half an hour, according to Meteocat. The organization has issued a warning for the observation of intense rains that exceed this threshold in the area and has alerted that the downpours are very static. In some cases, they were accompanied by hail. The Firefighters have registered about fifty services between three and eight in the afternoon, mostly in Girona, for leaks and accumulations of water. In Fornells de la Selva, 48.6 liters were recorded in 30 minutes.

At 5:30 in the afternoon, the rain gauges showed records such as the aforementioned 48.6 liters in Fornells de la Selva, 27.4 in la Bisbal d'Empordà, 26.1 in Banyoles, or 21.2 in Cassà de la Selva. In the northwest of the country, there have also been some notable figures, such as the 22.9 liters in Vielha.

Where the storm has also hit hard is in Valencia, which has once again experienced images of flooded streets and cars trapped on the road, and which even had to momentarily close the airport due to flooding.

Civil Protection Advice

Civil Protection reminds of the basic self-protection tips in case of torrential rains, such as reducing travel as much as possible and trying to avoid flood-prone areas and crossing rivers and streams. In fact, at 6:15 p.m., the emergency management agency reported that due to persistent rains in the Girona regions, the Catalan Water Agency has issued a hydrological risk warning for the Ter basin. The alert threshold for the Terri river in Cornellà de Terri has been exceeded with a maximum flow of 17 cubic meters per second, although the volume of water subsequently decreased to 5.22.

The deputy director of Prevention for Civil Protection, Joan Ramon Cabello, explained that the Inuncat plan is activated in the alert phase and recommended that, if travel is necessary, it should preferably be done via main roads and that low-lying areas, fords, and intersections with rivers and streams should be avoided. The head of the Meteocat Prediction Area, Santi Segalà, remarked that it is a situation "limited in time," with special attention during the afternoon, evening, and the early hours of the night, and asked people to check the radars and Meteocat warnings. "It is a day to be alert" to the precipitation, he noted. Segalà also appealed to citizen responsibility and recommended following official channels to monitor the rainfall episode.