DANA leaves thousands of cars trapped on the AP-7 in Tarragona due to restrictions

“Where is the storm?” On the AP-7 highway, in Tarragona, thousands of vehicles, mainly trucks, were trapped due to the mobility restrictions ordered by the Generalitat in prevention of the DANA episode this Wednesday. For hours, kilometer-long delays were generated, and inside the vehicles many drivers complained about having been trapped and not having been warned. The Civil Protection of the Generalitat had sent a notice the night before through the Es-Alert system, but its main feature, a geolocated alert, meant that many truckers, in passing, did not know about the cuts. Other trapped drivers directly questioned maximum restrictions when the storm was finally less intense than expected. Others, however, assumed that, after what happened in Valencia, restrictions are being ordered that in other circumstances would have been ignored.

Although the shutdown was scheduled until midnight tonight, traffic was finally reopened around 5:30 p.m. In the afternoon, with traffic restored, the Minister of the Interior, Núria Parlon, gave a positive assessment of the measures adopted, ensuring that they had prevented possible incidents.

The department, on the other hand, assured that the AP-7 had been established as a safe place to preserve the vehicles and remove them from other roads with a greater risk of flooding that in the end did not occur. Specifically, the Servei Català de Trànsit (SCT) had cut twelve roads in Catalonia, including the AP-7, within the framework of the mobility restrictions in force in five regions of the province of Tarragona: Baix Camp, Baix Ebre, Montsià , Ribera d’Ebre and Tarragonès. During the cut-off hours, only emergencies were allowed to pass through.

Schools reopen

Although the rainy episode has been less intense, the Inuncat plan remains in force until midnight due to the risk of “some overflowing of streams and torrents,” as explained by the counselor. The Generalitat confirmed that it planned to maintain the four out of six alert due to the intensity of rain until midnight in that area and due to accumulation of rain until six in the morning with a level of three out of six. The forecast is that during the day this Thursday the situation will completely normalize, and in fact school activity will recover in the aforementioned regions.