At 10:23 p.m., the phones in 27 municipalities began to ring in unison. On the screen, a message: “Exercise caution, avoid unnecessary travel,” the text said. The residents of two regions in Malaga, Costa del Sol and Valle del Guadalhorce, received it for the second time in less than six hours and it generated confusion because in the capital it barely rained all day despite the red notice activated by the (Aemet). “”, they stressed from the Junta de Andalucía, where they recalled that the most dangerous thing was the flooding of the rivers, which at that time continued to increase, and they highlighted that the preventive measures had had their effect. Residents of municipalities on the banks of the Guadalhorce spent the night watching a river that also forced them to carry out precautionary evictions this time.
The first time the messages arrived this Sunday it was a few minutes after two in the afternoon. Most municipalities already had their emergency plans activated, but after the alarm everything changed: shopping centers were closed, monuments and museums were closed, numerous parades were suspended and even public transportation was reduced to a minimum. The alert together with the red notice from Aemet caused especially fear in the Gudalhorce region, a day in which. This time, although 216 incidents due to the storm were recorded throughout the day, according to data from the 112 Andalusia Emergency services, there have been no personal injuries to report.
. Especially in the western area, according to the , with 191 liters per square meter in Los Reales, in Estepona —where the Santo Tomás de Aquino school was flooded— and 161 liters in Ojén, north of Marbella, where a hillside fell in the La Mairena urbanization. , with 194 liters in Las Millanas (Tolox) and 179 in Casarabonela, very close to Monda, where 12 families were evicted after the retaining wall of a building fell and relocated to a local hotel. In the area, the flow of the Rio Grande reached three meters high, its highest historical level, and even this Monday it was at alert level 2 (out of a maximum of 3). The power with which the water fell caused the collapse of a bridge in the municipality of Coín.
That is one of the many channels in the area that end in the Guadalhorce River, 5.78 meters high, beaten last week. Given the situation, the Cártama City Council opted to set up a sports hall for the 30 people who had to leave their homes for safety, of which around twenty spent the night there. Aerial images showed, for the second time in a week, how water and mud flooded large areas of citrus trees on the banks of the Guadalhorce and left small houses isolated, but the rains expected for the night maintained the concern of neighbors and authorities, who put special focus on fords to cross streams and rivers. “No one is able to know the level of height that these crossings carry and, therefore, we can get surprises like those of the last few days, so unpleasant and disastrous,” said the advisor to the Presidency, Antonio Sanz, late in the afternoon. By then, it was also decided to drain the La Concepción reservoir, in Istán, which was reaching its limits. “No one should trust themselves during the night or cross flooded areas,” insisted the Andalusian president, Juan Manuel Moreno Bonilla.
Houses flooded and roads closed
On Monday morning, the residents of the Doña Ana neighborhood, in Cártama, woke up the same way they have every time it rains too much and the Guadalhorce overflows: removing mud from their houses and cleaning the streets. Meanwhile, in other municipalities they took stock and activated devices to clean and fix roads or repair the numerous damages caused by water and wind, as was happening in Mijas or Estepona. The flooding of the rivers and the rains also caused problems on line 2 of the Cercanías due to the fall of a tree – already resolved – and numerous roads in Malaga, such as the A-7103, which remains closed in a three-kilometer stretch near Ojén due to a landslide that occupies the entire road. The A-7057 in Cártama Station also suffered damage, which returned to normal at noon on Monday thanks to the work of the Infoca Plan troops. Also the MA-3304 in Alhaurín el Grande, which presented “difficult driving conditions” according to the General Directorate of Traffic.
. Aemet activated the yellow warning in the Axarquía region until midnight on Monday due to the risk of storms. The possibility of snow or the accumulation of precipitation also kept the regions of Guadix and Baza, already in Granada, in yellow, in addition to the Granada coast. Also those of Poniente, Almería capital, Los Vélez and Valle del Almanzora in Almería. In both provinces there were road closures due to snowfall, although there was no major damage.
