A waterspout lasting almost two hours has left numerous floods and pools of water on the roads and streets of Bizkaia. The Euskadi Emergency Center has registered until 8:30 p.m. this Saturday a total of 150 incidents related to the intense rainfall, 137 of them in Bilbao, as reported by SOS Deiak, the Emergency Coordination Center of the Basque Government.
The storm struck with special intensity during the afternoon in the capital of Biscay, where it surprised numerous residents and visitors who were having a drink on the terraces of the Old Town. In less than an hour, several streets in the center have been flooded. In some points, the water level has reached the knees, while on the steeper roads the current fell strongly, making it difficult for some residents to access their homes.
Given the accumulation of water, some have chosen to remain on the terraces waiting for it to subside, while others have tried to leave the narrower streets. The rain has also entered bars and garages located at street level. Some businesses have placed wooden boards at their entrances to prevent water from reaching the interior, while firefighters work in several locations to bail it out.
The heavy rainfall has also caused problems in other parts of Bizkaia. Traffic through the La Avanzada tunnels, in Leioa, remains cut off due to accumulated water, and similar incidents have been recorded in Getxo, Basauri, Laudio, Galdakao, Sestao and Erandio.
Euskalmet, the official meteorological service of the Basque Country, keeps the orange alert activated until midnight. From then on, the rainfall is expected to subside in Bizkaia and the storm will move south, so the alert will give way to a yellow warning that will remain active until 6:00 a.m. on Sunday.
In Spain as a whole, 11 autonomous communities remain under some type of weather warning. Catalonia maintains red warnings, the maximum level of a scale of three, in Barcelona and Girona due to torrential rains until noon on Sunday, in addition to orange warnings due to storms due to the risk of accumulations of more than 90 liters per square meter in one hour and 200 in six hours. Asturias, Cantabria and Madrid have orange warnings for rain and yellow warnings for storms, while Andalusia, the Balearic Islands, Castilla y León, Castilla-La Mancha, Extremadura, Galicia and the Basque Country remain at the yellow level for both phenomena. Victoria Torres Benayas reports.
The strong storm, which began on Thursday, is expected to last until Wednesday. Friday night was especially complicated in Murcia and several towns in Castilla-La Mancha, where waterspouts caused flash floods, overflows and flooding.
This Saturday, residents of the most affected areas found themselves with flooded homes and premises, roads blocked and streets covered in mud. This is the case of Madrigueras, in Albacete, one of the municipalities hardest hit by torrential rains, where a 102-year-old woman drowned in her home.
Another 90 people had to be rescued in the municipality after 142 liters per square meter were recorded in just two and a half hours. Large streams of brown water ran through the streets and numerous vehicles were swept away and left piled on top of each other. Beatriz Olaizola reports.
The president of Castilla-La Mancha, Emiliano García-Page, has announced that he will request the declaration of a seriously affected area to facilitate access to state aid and that on Monday an information point will be installed for residents. Throughout the day, members of the Civil Guard, firefighters and workers from the City Council, the Provincial Council and the Board have worked to remove mud from streets, businesses and homes, as well as the mud accumulated in the schools of the municipality, with about 4,600 inhabitants.
The rains have also left images of flooding in several municipalities of Murcia. In the Campo de Cartagena region, 115 liters per square meter were recorded on Friday, while in Los Alcázares the water flooded the streets and several people were trapped in their vehicles and had to be rescued.
The rainy episode spread during the afternoon to other areas of the country, with weather warnings in Madrid, Cantabria, Extremadura, Castilla y León and Andalusia. The State Meteorological Agency (Aemet) warned of the risk of sudden flooding, especially in low areas and near streams.
In the Community of Madrid, attention is especially focused on the mountain area, which remains under an orange warning. In Ávila, in addition, the images of floods of black water that have flowed through several areas burned this summer by fires have attracted attention.
