Authorities said on Monday that four people have died as torrential rain across eastern Spain has caused severe flooding, forced evacuations and prompted shelter-in-place orders affecting tens of thousands of residents.
The heavy rain came from Storm Adam, which began on Saturday. In parts of the Valencia region, it dropped as much as 700 litres per square metre (185 gallons) within 24 hours. The storm also lashed the Balearic Islands and Catalonia.
Floodwaters have cut off several towns along the Mediterranean coast. Rivers have overflowed their banks and streets have become fast-moving torrents, bringing back memories of the flooding that killed more than 230 people in the Valencia region two years ago.
Four deaths confirmed and hundreds of rescues carried out
The storm has been confirmed to have killed four people. Two died in the coastal resort of Oliva, a third at a beach in Sagunto, and a fourth after falling into a swollen stream in Catalonia.
Security forces carried out more than 400 rescues in the Valencia region, according to government representative Pilar Bernabe. The Civil Guard police said authorities had carried out nearly 100 rescues in Valencia and Alicante on Monday, and more than 2,000 people had been evacuated, mainly in Oliva.
Shelter orders eased as residents wait to be rescued
On Monday morning, 800,000 residents were under shelter-in-place orders. By late afternoon, that number had fallen to 87,000 people in eight municipalities. Authorities had earlier ordered about 100 municipalities to stay indoors for several hours, but the regional government said most restrictions were lifted by early afternoon as conditions improved.
Not everyone was safe yet. Enrique Moll, mayor of Pego, told public regional broadcaster A Punt radio on Monday that several people were still waiting to be flown out by helicopter from their roofs, and that all access routes to the town were blocked. Salvador Llopis, deputy mayor of Oliva, told state broadcaster TVE that emergency services were reaching trapped residents, particularly elderly people stuck in their homes with water up to their waists.
Cars piled up in Els Poblets and record September heat
In Els Poblets, northeast of Alicante, the force of the water had stacked cars and vans on top of one another, while residents tried to salvage what they could from their homes. Local resident Javier Fornez said: “The village, well, it’s a disaster. Some people have lost everything all over again, just like in 2007, when exactly the same thing happened.”
The weather backdrop was also notable. The national weather agency AEMET announced on Friday that last month was the hottest September on record for mainland Spain, after the country registered its warmest summer between June and August.
