DANA leaves seven missing and damages millions in a single day

In the Valencian Community, DANA has forced level 2 of the special plan for floods to be activated throughout the province of Valencia. Civil Protection has asked citizens to avoid traveling, while dozens of drivers are already trapped in their cars and waiting to be rescued.

The heavy rains caused the overflowing of rivers and ravines, and forced the Military Emergency Unit (UME) to be mobilized to the Utiel-Requena area. Only in this last municipality it discharged more than 300 liters per square meter. In the north of the province of Valencia, images of the water swallowing everything in its path, forcefully dragging vehicles and urban furniture. A territory on red alert that bore the brunt of the storm, with historical records of rainfall and strong gusts of wind. The Ribera Alta region also suffered the effects of DANA with 240 liters per square meter in Castellón and even a tornado that caused the collapse of some light towers and roofs of several companies in an industrial area of ​​Carlet.

Overflow

The other concern comes from the overflowing of the rivers. This Tuesday, Civil Protection issued a special notice to all the municipalities bordering the Magro River and the Júcar River, from Algemesí to the mouth in Cullera, due to the widespread overflow. The Júcar Hydrographic Confederation (CHJ) calculated that the Magro River It could reach 1,000 cubic meters per second (m3/s). Also the Ebro Hydrographic Confederation (CHE) reports that DANA can cause floods in the Ebro Basin. The situation will be especially delicate during the first part of the day this Wednesday.

The A-3 highway, the A-7 and about twenty regional roads were closed to traffic throughout a day in which the Valencia Provincial Firefighters Consortium helicopter did not stop flying. rescue drivers and residents trapped in flooded areas. At the time of going to press, a Civil Guard operation was still searching for a missing truck driver in l’Alcúdia, whose whereabouts had been lost at one in the afternoon. Firefighters carried out more than 200 interventions.

At least 68 municipalities suspended classes and the circulation of high-speed and conventional trains between Madrid and Valencia, as well as the Cercanías between Utiel and Buñol, had to be interrupted due to the accumulation of water on the tracks. In parallel, the two main agricultural organizations of the Valencian Community -AVA-Asaja and La Unió- warned of the significant damage to cropsroads and infrastructure that the storm has left in its wake. The damage, they explained, will cause “million dollar losses” in the Valencian Community, since the damage to some crops will be “up to one hundred percent of the harvest.”

In Castilla-La Mancha, the town of Letur (Albacete) also suffered an immense flood after a stream overflowed, which crossed the center of the town. At the close of this edition, the emergency services were looking for six people, as confirmed by the Government delegate in Castilla-La Mancha, Milagros Tolón, to TVE. «LA DANA has devastated a large part of the town. The images are dantesque »acknowledged Tolón, who ruled out asking the UME for help. Two of them are municipal workers, who were working on a boulevard when the storm began, reports JA Pérez. For about 60 people from Letur who cannot return to their homes because they are flooded, the Red Cross of Castilla-La Mancha yesterday installed a temporary shelter at the CEIP ‘Our Lady of the Assumption’ in this town.

Tension in Andalusia

In Andalusia, heavy rains left at least 800 incidents. It has been a day of tension, which saw people rescued by the Civil Guard until late into the night. The storms began at dawn. The warnings began in the province of Almería (150), especially in the municipality of El Ejido with a strong hailstorm, which caused numerous damages. The Andalusian Government estimates that 4,200 hectares of greenhouses were affected in both El Ejido and Dalias.

But throughout the morning, the storm front moved from east to west through the region and that caused the cluster of incidents to move from the west of Almería to the northern area of ​​Granada (179) and Málaga (346), which accumulated half of the incidents recorded in the entire community. The notices have mainly referred to flooding of homes, basements, basements, garages, as well as collapses and falls of branches and trees or displacement of street furniture, as well as requests for help for stuck vehicles and traffic incidents due to pools of water in the road.

The heavy rains have affected the road and rail communications network due to the derailment of an AVE in Álora, on the Casablanquilla section, with 291 passengers inside who were unharmed.

The effects of the storm have hit the capital of the Costa del Sol and the municipalities of Álora and Pizarra starting at ten in the morning. The increase of flow of the Guadalhorce river It caused flooding of rural homes and required, throughout the day, the rescue of people trapped in their homes with helicopters and boats by Civil Guard divers. There were cars stuck in pools of water, as well as others that disappeared due to the flood in the middle of the flow. The Álora City Council enabled the ‘Antonio Henares’ sports center as a temporary shelter.

The Aemet forecast expected that this Tuesday would be the most adverse day of the DANA, after recording rains of at least 200 liters per square meter in Turís (Valencia) or 175 in Álora (Málaga) in the observatories of the main network. But the risk continuesespecially for the interior of Valencia. The Aemet maintains orange warnings due to heavy rainfall in the south of Aragon, the interior of the Valencian Community and the east of Castilla-La Mancha.