Disasters follow one another in Spain. After months of historic drought, the country is hit by torrential rains that left two dead and three missing. These bad weather, which have affected the country since this weekend, particularly affected the regions of Madrid and Castile-La-Manche (center), where torrential rains fell overnight from Sunday to Monday.
The president of Castilla-La Mancha, Emiliano García-Page, announced Monday morning on social networks “the death of two people in the province of Toledo”. Still near Toledo, research is underway to find a “woman who disappeared following the flood [d’une rivière] in Valmojado,” a spokesman for the Civil Guard told AFP, while a helicopter was sent to rescue people who had taken refuge on the roof of their house.
10-year-old boy rescued from tree
In the neighboring region of Madrid, a man was also wanted after being carried away during the night by a flooded river in the municipality of Aldea del Fresno, while he was in his car. “We are inspecting the river to try to locate the vehicle,” Javier Chivite, spokesman for the Madrid region’s emergency services, told public television.
His 10-year-old son, who was traveling with him, was rescued after taking shelter on a tree, authorities said. His mother and sister, who were also in the vehicle, had already been rescued earlier. “The poor man spent the whole night perched on a tree,” said the president of the region, Isabel Diaz Ayuso, visiting Aldea del Fresno, one of the localities most affected by these bad weather. An 83-year-old man, “carried away by the current” in the neighboring town of Villamanta, is also wanted, according to the Civil Guard.
Seven regions on alert
Although the rains calmed down somewhat on Monday, the National Meteorological Agency kept seven regions on alert, including Madrid, Castilla-La Mancha, Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and the Basque Country. The Madrid authorities have recommended that the nearly seven million inhabitants of the region telecommute and avoid unnecessary travel in the capital, the access to which was very congested on Monday morning.
A country on the front line of global warming, with 75% of its territory threatened by desertification, Spain is regularly hit by torrential rains in late summer and autumn, which struggle to penetrate the ground and cause sudden swelling. the bed of the rivers. This phenomenon, called “Dana” by meteorologists (“isolated depression at high levels”), sometimes has dramatic consequences. In 2018, 13 people died on the island of Mallorca, in the Balearic Islands.