close
close

Semainede4jours

Real-time news, timeless knowledge

    • Heavy rains disrupt rail service in Barcelona as soldiers search for more flood victims in Valencia
    bigrus

    Heavy rains disrupt rail service in Barcelona as soldiers search for more flood victims in Valencia

    Harry Posted on

    Joseph Wilson
    | Associated Press

    Barcelona, ​​Spain — Repeated storms that caused major flooding in eastern Spain last week and killed at least 217 people, mostly near Valencia, dumped rain on Barcelona on Monday and led authorities to suspend commuter rail service.

    Spanish Transport Minister Óscar Puente said that he suspended all suburban trains in the northeast of Catalonia, where 8 million people live, at the request of civil protection authorities.

    Mobile phones in Barcelona screamed warning of “excessive and persistent rainfall” on the city’s southern outskirts. The warning urged people to avoid normally dry gorges or canals.

    Puente said rains forced air traffic controllers to reroute 15 flights operating at Barcelona airport on the city’s southern flank.

    Many highways were closed to traffic due to floods.

    In Tarragona, a city located in the south of Catalonia, approximately halfway between Barcelona and Valencia, classes were canceled after a red alert was issued due to rain.

    Meanwhile, in Valencia, the search continued for bodies and thousands of scrap cars in houses scattered on the streets, highways and canals that carried last week’s floods to residential areas.

    Spanish Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska said authorities still could not provide a reliable estimate of the losses. However, Spanish national television RTVE broadcast the call for help of many desperate people who could not be heard from their loved ones.

    In the municipality of Aldaia, about 50 soldiers, police and firefighters, some wearing wetsuits, searched the underground parking lot of a large shopping mall for possible victims. They used a small boat and spotlights to navigate the massive structure, with vehicles submerged in at least a meter of murky water.

    Police spokesman Ricardo Gutiérrez told reporters that about 50 vehicles have been found so far and no bodies have been found there.

    The Bonaire shopping centre’s 1,800 underground car parks were quickly filled with water and mud in a tsunami-like flood on the southern outskirts of Valencia on Tuesday and Wednesday. The team uses four pumps to remove the water.

    Citizens, volunteers and thousands of soldiers and police officers continued massive clean-up efforts to clear mud and debris.

    Many people feel abandoned by the authorities; Their anger erupts Sunday as they slander Spain’s royal couple, their prime minister and regional leaders as they make their first visit to Paiporta, where more than 60 people died and survivors lost their homes. We still don’t have drinking water.

    Spain is used to autumn storms that can lead to flooding, but the latest one caused the deadliest floods in Spanish memory.

    Climate scientists and meteorologists say the immediate cause of the flooding was a low-pressure storm system migrating from an unusually wavy and stalled jet stream. It was probably due to the record warm Mediterranean. This system parked itself over the area and caused a flood.

    The Spanish navy transport ship “Galicia” arrived in the port of Valencia on Monday with sailors, helicopters and trucks loaded with food and water to assist in relief efforts that included 7,500 soldiers and thousands of police reinforcements.

    Harry
    View all posts

    You Might Also Like