People in the town of Alcanar in the northeast Spain Has been assessing the damage to houses and businesses caused by flooding caused by heavy rainfall in large areas of the country.
Residents said they were lucky that between 12 am and 6 pm on Wednesday, more than 250 liters of water per square meter were dumped in the town, causing no casualties.
“We had to go upstairs to our apartment and give everything to God,” Rosa María Sancho, 67, said on Thursday that she is the owner of a restaurant on the Alcanar Boardwalk.
Flash floods quickly turned the streets into rivers, scouring wherever they passed. Several cars were taken away, and about a dozen were eventually thrown into the waves of the Mediterranean Sea. Houses and businesses are full of dirt, water and debris.
Sancho’s daughter Carla Bayerri said they watched helplessly as “part of the terrace fell into the sea.”
Firefighters used a helicopter to rescue the three people in serious danger. Many more people have to be pulled from cars that have been flooded. The local authorities resettled 58 residents to the hotel, and another 16 people spent the night in a crib in the sports hall. The four had to be rescued at a nearby campsite, which was also severely damaged.
Paquita Aubalat breathed a sigh of relief when her 93-year-old father Vicent was rescued by neighbors from his home in Alcanar, which was flooded .
“He has been [his home], But the important thing is that he is safe,” Obarat said.
The authorities are working to reopen roads and train lines that are impassable due to mud and water.
Other parts of central and northern Spain, including Madrid, also experienced flooding on Wednesday. Large areas of northern Spain and the Balearic Islands are under storm warning for the second day in a row.
Spain’s National Meteorological Service stated that heavy rainfall and droughts related to the climate crisis have increased.
Meteorological Service spokesperson Ruben del Campo said: “Spain, especially in some parts of the Mediterranean, has observed more intense rainstorms and longer droughts interrupted by these heavy rains.”
