There are still 14 active reports of disappearances
The number of confirmed deaths in the floods in the Valencia region rose to 217, after the death of one person in hospital, Spanish authorities said today.
Most of the fatal victims of bad weather in Spain are from the autonomous region of the Valencian Community, in the east, where there are still 14 active reports of disappearances, two fewer than in the balance at the end of Thursday.
In the region of Castile La Mancha, in a neighboring area of the Valencian Community, seven more people died and there is still one fatality from the storm in Andalusia, in the south of the country.
On Thursday, Spain’s meteorological agency lowered the bad weather alert for the Valencia region from red to orange, after a morning of heavy rain.
Also on Thursday, the Civil Protection of the Valencian Community deactivated the alert phase of the Special Emergency Plan for the risk of flooding in Catalonia and also the warning for strong waves on the north and south coast of the province.
New storms forced around three thousand people to abandon their homes in Málaga, in the south, in addition to causing the closure of schools and the cancellation of trains.
In the south of the province of Málaga, the streets were flooded and residents near the Guadalhorce River were evacuated from their homes as a preventative measure.
Schools across the province were closed, as were many shops, and trains running between Malaga and Madrid on the AVE high-speed rail line were cancelled.
The population has been affected by flooding caused by the storm (known locally as DANA, ‘isolated high-level depression’).
These new storms occur two weeks after several floods devastated eastern Spain, causing the death of at least 224 people and the destruction of homes and infrastructure, especially in the Valencia region, which is still recovering from the effects of the storm.
The storm system affecting Spain is caused by warm air colliding with stagnant cold air and forming powerful rain clouds. Experts say cycles of drought and floods are increasing with climate change.
