On the anniversary of the devastating Valencia floods, the southern Spanish provinces of Seville and Huelva were hit with torrential rain and winds that flooded city streets and caused the cancellation of hundreds of inter-regional trains.
Heavy rain and stormy conditions battered western provinces of Andalusia on Wednesday, causing over a thousand incidents and the cancellation of trains across the region.
Hundreds of local, medium and long distance services were suspended between Seville, Huelva and Málaga due to flooding following the sudden downpours.
On the anniversary of the deadly Valencia floods, videos shared on social media showed torrential downpours and flooding in residential areas with water rising to wheel or bonnet-level on parked cars. Gale force winds tore through streets across the western part of the region, causing damage and injuries.
State broadcaster RTVE reports that 150 litres/m2 of rain fell in just 13 hours in Seville and Huelva.
READ ALSO: Valencia leader called ‘murderer’ at flood memorial in Spain
Alerts from Spain’s state weather agency Aemet were later downgraded as the storm left the area and began moving eastward across the southern region. In Seville, the hardest hit area, the latest forecast from the Aemet points to cloudy skies, but with 0 percent chance of precipitation throughout Thursday.
Reporting from Spanish daily El Mundo states that Cercanías train services from Seville have been restored as of Thursday morning, but that Media Distancia connections remain disrupted between Seville, Huelva and Cádiz in that western corner of the country.
Renfe, Spain’s state railway, has set up alternative road services for affected routes.
The storms meant that two people were injured in Gibraleón, Huelva, and one in Carmona, Seville. Across the region the authorities faced more than 1,300 incidents, most of them in the provinces of Seville (903) and Huelva (303).
Incidents were also reported in Córdoba (45), Málaga (33), Cádiz (23), Jaén (7) and Granada (2), according to reports from Spain’s 112 Emergency Service.
Reporting from Onda Cero suggests that flooding was the most common cause of emergency calls, with 1,021 cases, followed by collapses and falling debris (117), traffic problems (95) and breakdowns in basic services (50), among others.
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Between 12:00 and 15:00 p.m the heavy rains caused 400 incidents in the province of Seville alone, most of them in the capital, which saw numerous streets flooded in the city centre.
Andalusia’s regional government is maintaining emergency Level 1 of the Special Emergency Plan for Andalusia’s flood risk protocol.
State meteorological agency Aemet has deactivated all orange warnings in Seville and Córdoba, according to agency reporting as of this morning.
In the case of Seville, a yellow-level warning is still in place in rural areas and in the Sierra Sur until 21.00 pm, while in the Sierra de los Pedroches and the Córdoba countryside a yellow-level warning has been activated until midnight.
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