Four dead as torrential rain batters eastern Spain

Cars swept away, roads submerged, residents isolated in parts of Spain’s Mediterranean coast.

Four people have been killed as torrential rainfall sweeping eastern Spain triggered severe flooding, evacuations and shelter-in-place orders for tens of thousands of people, authorities said on Monday.

The downpour from Storm Adam, which started on Saturday, dumped as much as 700 litres of rain (185 gallons) per square metre in 24 hours in some areas of the Valencia region.

Floodwaters have since isolated several towns along the Mediterranean coast, while rivers have burst their banks and streets have turned into torrents, leaving scenes reminiscent of the catastrophic flooding that killed more than 230 people in the Valencia region two years ago.

The storm is confirmed to have killed four people: two in the coastal resort of Oliva, a third at a beach in Sagunto, and a fourth who fell into a swollen stream in Catalonia.

Winched to safety

On Monday morning, 800,000 residents were under shelter-in-place orders, but that was reduced to 87,000 in eight municipalities by late afternoon.

Security forces carried out more than 400 rescues in the Valencia region, according to government representative Pilar Bernabe.

People stranded on rooftops have been winched to safety amid widespread evacuations.

The storm, which also lashed the Balearic Islands and Catalonia, prompted authorities to order about 100 municipalities to remain indoors for several hours on Monday.

Most restrictions were lifted by early afternoon as conditions improved, the regional government said.

‘It’s a disaster’

In Els Poblets, northeast of Alicante, cars and vans were piled on top of one another from the force of the water, as residents tried to salvage what they could from their homes.

“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,” resident Javier Fornez said.

More than 2,000 people were evacuated, mainly in Oliva, and authorities carried out nearly 100 rescues in Valencia and Alicante on Monday, the Civil Guard police said.

The mayor of Pego, Enrique Moll, told public regional broadcaster A Punt radio on Monday that several people were still waiting to be evacuated by helicopter from their roofs. All access routes to the town were blocked, he added.

The deputy mayor of Oliva, Salvador Llopis, told state broadcaster TVE on Monday that emergency services were rescuing trapped residents, particularly elderly people stuck inside their homes with water up to their waists.

National weather agency AEMET announced on Friday that last month was mainland Spain’s hottest September on record, after registering its warmest summer between June and August.