The National Météo Agency in Spain (Aemet) was placed on Sunday, September 28 and Monday, September 29, the East Flan of the Iberian Peninsula, and more particularly the Region of Valencia, on red alert with heavy rains.
In this area between Tarragona, Catalonia and Valencia, Spanish weather services anticipate intense rainy falls with a hundred millimeters of precipitation per hour.
In the peak of the event, the AEMET provides up to 180 liters per square meter of rain accumulated in three or four hours. This episode is caused by the storm Gabrielle, who swept the Azores a few days ago without victims.
Closed schools and recommendations
According to the Spanish newspaper El Pais, the Emergency Center of the Generalitat Valenciana sent this Sunday, shortly before 3.30 pm, an alert message on mobile phones in areas that are probably affected by the rains.
The population of these locations is invited to avoid moving, not crossing flooding areas, not approaching water courses or their surroundings and, if it is in low areas, to be safe on the upper floors or high places. A similar message was also transmitted by the Generalitat of Catalonia.
The Valencia City Council, which brought together its local emergency committee (Cecopa) on Sunday, closes the city’s schools on Monday.
For the registration, during the night of October 28 to 29, 2024, more than 300 liters of water per square meter (30 cm) had fallen into several cities in the Valencia region, with a point of 491 liters/m2 (49.1 cm) in the small town of Chiva. It was the equivalent of one year of precipitation. The human record of these floods had reached 223 victims.
Source: BFM TV
