Málaga: Spain evacuated thousands of residents and closed schools on Wednesday as heavy rains ravaged the country two weeks after the worst flooding in a generation killed more than 220 people.

The national weather office AEMET has placed the southern province of Malaga and the northeastern Catalonia region on red alert, the highest level, due to heavy rains expected to continue until Friday.

Less heavy downpours will hit the eastern Valencia region, already devastated by floods, with up to 180 millimeters of rain predicted to fall in just 12 hours.

Emergency services in the southern Andalusia region said more than 1,000 homes and nearly 3,000 residents were evacuated in and around the city of Malaga.

Images on social media showed Malaga’s normally bustling commercial center abandoned and cars plowing through rising waters that had submerged the roads.

Ester Espinosa, 47, who lives in the Malaga suburb of Campanillas, told AFP residents had set up barricades to block the water.

“It’s not exaggerated at all,” added Ida Maria Ledesma Martin, a 39-year-old social educator who said police warned residents that morning.

National railway operator Renfe said that in addition to the high-speed line connecting Madrid and Malaga, regional services were also suspended and the local metro was closed.

Operator Aena wrote on X that Malaga airport canceled one flight and diverted five other flights. Local television footage showed the airport entrance flooded.

The start of the Billie Jean King Cup tennis finals to be played between Spain and Poland in Malaga has also been postponed.

“Today, Malaga is paralyzed… If it rains heavily in a short period of time, there is no capacity or infrastructure to handle it,” Juanma Moreno, leader of the Andalusia region, told reporters.

‘Prevention is better than cure’

Rain meant schools and universities were closed in much of Valencia, Andalusia and Catalonia.

Authorities in the Valencia region have warned that sewage systems, already clogged with sludge, could struggle to cope with a new storm.

In the October 29 disaster, 223 people died, most of them in the Valencia region, infrastructure was destroyed, buildings collapsed and fields were flooded. The final bill is expected to rise to tens of billions of euros.

“There is nothing to lose anymore,” Carlos Molto, who lives in the Picanya suburb of the city of Valencia, told local television channel A Punt.

An AFP journalist saw many people in the devastated town of Paiporta barricading their homes with planks or sandbags to avoid further flooding.

The regional governments of Andalusia and Catalonia sent emergency alerts to mobile phones warning people to be careful two weeks ago, after many residents of Valencia received the alerts too late.

“Prevention is better than cure, we already saw this in Valencia,” Moreno said.

Both storms are the result of a sudden cold drop known in Spanish as “gota fria.” When cold air moves over the warm waters of the Mediterranean, it allows warmer, moist air at the surface to rise rapidly. This creates dense rain clouds.