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Two weeks after the devastating floods that left more than 200 dead in the region, the Spanish Meteorological Agency has issued a red warning for the Valencian coast due to a significant risk of rain following a new episode that has already brought the first downpours to Andalusia.
“The danger is extreme. Avoid travel. Rivers may overflow and flooding may occur,” the State Meteorological Agency (Aemet) said on social media X.
“Over 180 l/m² of rain could accumulate in the coming hours,” the agency said, raising the warning level in the evening. The alert will be active in the area between 9:00 p.m. local time on Wednesday and 11:59 a.m. on Thursday.
Shortly afterwards, the Valencian government – heavily criticised for its handling of the emergency that led to the severe flooding on 29 October – ordered the suspension of school, sports and private vehicle activities in more than a hundred municipalities in this region in eastern Spain, including the capital, Valencia.
The restrictions will be extended from Wednesday night “until 11:59 p.m.” on Thursday, regional president Carlos Mazón said on his X account, “to guarantee people’s safety.”
Many of the municipalities devastated by the first storm, which left 223 dead in total, are now again under red alert and fearing for the state of their sewers, in many cases blocked by dried mud and debris yet to be removed.
Mazón’s expected appearance before the Valencian Parliament on Thursday on his controversial handling of the first emergency was also postponed until Friday.
Malaga paralyzed
This new DANA (isolated depression at high levels) began on Wednesday, putting several points in the Spanish Mediterranean on alert.
The southern city of Malaga seemed to be the worst hit, with more than 4,200 people evacuated, mainly from homes near rivers, and urban transport and much of the rail service suspended.
“Today Malaga is paralyzed,” the regional president of Andalusia, Juan Manuel Moreno, told reporters. “I know that it is a problem for citizens not to be able to take their children to school” or go to work, but after what we saw in Valencia we must “prevent” and “minimize the impact in terms of loss of human lives,” he added.
The storm forced the postponement of a women’s tennis tie between Spain and Poland in the Billie Jean King Cup, which was scheduled to take place on Wednesday afternoon in Malaga, until Thursday.
Local media images showed deserted streets flooded with water and Andalusian emergency services recorded more than 700 incidents in Malaga alone, according to the regional government.
“We were more than warned last night,” Ida María Ledesma, a 39-year-old social worker living in the Malaga district of Campanillas, told AFPTV. “The deployment was very good. I don’t think it was exaggerated at all,” she added about the measures adopted.
The Andalusian government has decided to extend the suspension of classes to Thursday in Malaga, which will be on red alert at least until 08:00, and in other municipalities in this extensive region in the south of the country.
In the southern area of Catalonia (northeast), also under red alert for part of the day, the alert level was reduced to orange at the end of the day.
‘Nothing to lose’
A DANA is a mass of air that emerges from a very cold current and descends over another warm air current, producing large atmospheric disturbances accompanied by very intense precipitation.
Such a phenomenon triggered the episode of October 29, when violent rainfall produced a flood that devastated several towns in the province of Valencia, where on Wednesday some thought it was not possible to lose any more.
“We’ve already lost our cars, we’ve already lost most of our house, and we don’t have our jobs either. So, there’s nothing left to lose,” Carlos Moltó, a resident of the municipality of Picanya, told Valencian regional television A Punt.
The new rains also affected the search for the 17 missing people, which was mainly focused on ravines and river mouths leading to the sea.
“Following this meteorological episode, the tides will be assessed again to determine the search areas,” Rosa Tourís, spokesperson for the Valencia emergency committee, told reporters.
