Exceptional storm, with very intense and continuous rainfall that yesterday again bathed, as is rarely remembered, almost all of Catalonia and which is expected to continue doing so at least until early afternoon today, Sunday. It was the alert verbalized by the Government, those responsible for Civil Protection and Meteocat, which even mentioned the possibility of a "mini Mediterranean hurricane", in this period of inclement weather that yesterday ruined many activities scheduled for Saturday and which has forced the same measures to be taken today in anticipation of more incidents due to the rain.
This warning from the authorities took place in the early afternoon with the sending of an ES-Alert to warn of the risk of torrential rains and the suspension of activities and mobility between 8 p.m. on Saturday and 2 p.m. on Sunday. Even President Salvador Illa called for caution through social networks: “Stay at home.” A call that, at a press conference, was reiterated by the deputy director of Civil Protection, Sergi Delgado. The measure, derived from the red alert level (the maximum), affects 20 coastal and pre-coastal regions of Tarragona and Barcelona, Girona, Osona and Moianès and involves the suspension of activities in the natural environment, parks, urban gardens, sports, cultural, leisure and recreational activities, markets, fairs and other commercial or public activities.
Hours before this ES-Alert was issued to the majority of the population of Catalonia, many town councils had already anticipated the maximum risk situation and canceled activities that were to be carried out on Saturday morning, as well as others scheduled for today. This is the case of events as diverse as the demonstrations for the right to housing, the Hombres G concert at the Palau Sant Jordi or the celebration of the 125th anniversary of the Tibidabo park, to name just three of the hundreds of cancellations of the weekend. In Tarragona, the Concurs de Castells will delay its start, in principle, until four in the afternoon.
The situation was expected to be so exceptional that unusual decisions were taken regarding mobility, but correct ones, considering what happened. For example, the Barcelona metro, which already had to close some accesses in the morning, announced in mid-afternoon that it would not provide the service throughout the night, as is the norm every Saturday. The service ended at midnight and was not scheduled to resume until five in the morning. TMB buses provided minimal services until midnight, and the AMB BusNit did not operate.
For its part, Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat applied the Pla Inuncat even more severely and stopped the service at 8 in the afternoon. There is no forecast for trains to run again until 2 p.m. today. And after announcing that some lines could suffer delays, around 7 p.m. Renfe announced that the Generalitat had decreed the suspension of Rodalies circulation also from 8 p.m. on Saturday and until weather conditions allow the service to be restored with all safety guarantees. Lines RL3 and RL4 in Lleida and the Tortosa-l'Hospitalet de l'Infant section were exempt from this measure. Likewise, Renfe suspended the first high-speed services on Sunday in the Barcelona-Girona-Figueres corridor. The inability to travel left thousands of people without options to return home. Some sections of the Ronda de Dalt were converted into a swimming pool, as were several metro stations.
The El Prat airport was also greatly affected, with flight cancellations and widespread delays since the morning. At 10 p.m. there were 220 cancellations and more than 500 delayed flights.
Many businesses decided to close their shutters before normal closing hours. Some shopping centers and large chain stores such as Inditex in the Catalan capital also did so. Starting at 9 p.m., the situation worsened and the city streets emptied, although hours later it was still possible to see food delivery service riders driving around, forced to work in difficult conditions.
The rainfall, accompanied by a festival of lightning and thunder, is being of such intensity that in the area affected by the storm it is expected to leave much more than 200 l/m2. From the early hours of the night, the rising water flooded streets, penetrated basements and premises and threatened to overflow rivers and streams. The storm was making its way towards the regions of Girona.
The Generalitat Firefighters have received some 178 calls from 8:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m., especially for flooded basements and warnings of streets with a lot of accumulated water. According to Meteocat data, in Barcelona up to 107.5 liters per square meter have accumulated in Zona Universitària and 82.7 liters per square meter in Raval. In El Prat de Llobregat the records have been 77.9 liters per square meter and in Badalona 77.2 liters per square meter.
Barcelona City Council has housed 93 people in municipal emergency facilities until 10 p.m. this Saturday to sleep during the rain. It has also activated CUESB social care to serve around 80 people at the França and Sants stations who cannot return home, it reports in a statement.
