Floods and travel disruption in southern Catalonia after heavy rain

Flooding from heavy rain in southern Catalonia on Saturday and Sunday led to travel disruption and firefighters having to rescue people from homes and cars.

As of 2pm, the C-12 remained closed due to flooding along a five kilometer section between Tortosa and Amposta.

The AP-7, one of Catalonia's major highways, was closed for a while on Sunday morning for 14 kilometers between Freginals and Ulldecona, as was the TV-3443 in Amposta and the TP-3311 in Galera-Godall, according to the Catalan Traffic Service (SCT).

Railway services along the Mediterranean corridor and the R16 Rodalies line between Ulldecona and Aldea stations were canceled, with some trains between Catalonia and Valencia being diverted via Madrid.

The electricity supply was disrupted in Sénia, in the Montsià region. The incident started at 1.30pm and left 1,684 customers without power.

The Civil Protection Agency advised citizens in Alcanar to remain indoors due to the risk of flooding. Residents were advised to go to the upper floors of their homes and call 112 in case of emergency. The stay-at-home warning was lifted at around 2.30pm.

The mayor of Alcanar, Joan Roig, urged the Catalan government to undertake a careful study to change the current urban planning model in the town, which has been severly affected by flooding.

"We have urban plans from a long time ago, which were developed in an uncontrolled manner, without sufficiently rigorous meteorological criteria," he told Catalunya Ràdio.

Fire service rescue trapped citizens

The fire service received reports of more than 150 incidents due to the downpours, the majority in the Ebre region.  

More than a dozen residents had to be rescued from homes and cars, the fire service said, including two people rescued on Saturday at 10pm from a house in Aldea after the roof collapsed.

From midday on Saturday to late Sunday morning, 213mm of rain fell in Alcanar, according to Meteocat (Meteorological Service of Catalonia), which described the rainfall as torrential (>40mm/30min) in some parts of the south.