One man died and another five people were missing yesterday after a night of torrential rain triggered flash flooding in northeastern Spain, cutting off roads and disrupting air travel, officials said.
Police said they found a man’s body late on Tuesday on the beach in Caldes d’Estrac, some 40km north of Barcelona, while further south, rescuers were engaged in the hunt for five other people, all of whom disappeared in a badly-hit area inland from the coastal city of Tarragona.
Aerial footage from the affected zone, which lies about 30km north of Tarragona, showed villages swamped by floodwaters and mud, with trees and even bridges swept away by the force of the water.
During the evening, regional police confirmed they were looking for a Belgian lorry driver whose empty vehicle had been found in the Francoli river, after earlier saying they were also hunting for two people, reportedly a woman and her adult son whose prefab home was swept away by floodwaters in Vilaverd.
They were also looking for another two people whose empty car was found near l’Espluga de Francoli in the same area.
Flooding and landslides forced the closure of nearly 50 roads and halted train services in the region, as well as forcing the diversion of 37 flights, most of them in Palma on the holiday island of Mallorca, regional transport authorities said to media persons.
And nearly 25,000 homes across the region were left without power due to the high winds and heavy rain, although by mid-afternoon that number had fallen to 10,000, officials said.
As rescuers in Catalonia continued the search for those reported missing inland from the coastal city of Tarragona, the stormy weather shifted towards the Cantabria region on Spain’s northern coast, forecasters said.
The heavy rainfall also battered southern France, where roads were flooded, train services interrupted, and people evacuated from their homes.
In the southwestern Beziers region, 2m of water fell in less than six hours — the equivalent of two-and-a-half months worth of rain, Meteo France said, warning that gale-force winds raised the possibility of high waves swamping parts of the coastline.
In the city of Argeles-sur-Mer in the Pyrenees-Orientales department, one vehicle ended up wedged on top of a traffic bollard.
Across the region, streets and roads have been severely damaged and covered with mud, forcing residents to clean up.
Blocks of cement have been moved by flood water.
“I’ve never seen water rise that fast. I’ve lived here for 20 years and this is the first time,” Jean-Louis, a retiree in Servian, near Beziers, told Reuters TV.
France’s national weather authority said storms and heavy rains could continue through to today.
It also said on its website that 12cm of rain had fallen in less than three hours in the Bezier area of Herault department.
Rainfall reached 16.5cm in 24 hours in the city of Beziers.
In September, seven people died in storms and flooding following days of record rainfall in southeastern Spain.
Last year, intense rain in Mallorca caused the deaths of 13 people as rivers burst their banks, flooding streets and sweeping away cars.
Vehicles drive through flood waters yesterday following overnight storms in Beziers, southern France.
