Spain’s Deadly Storms Move North to Cause Chaos in Catalonia

Barcelona’s transport system ground to a halt, as Catalonia was the latest Spanish region to be hit by extreme storms that killed more than 200 people in neighboring Valencia last week.

Flooded streets brought traffic to a standstill in the capital of Catalonia, while local train services were suspended on Monday. Flights were also redirected from Barcelona’s airport, with parts of Catalonia under a red alert for torrential rains. Schools suspended classes in nine cities in the south of the region.

Southern Catalonia borders Valencia, which is grappling with the aftermath of floods that killed at least 217 people, with hundreds more still missing. While the heavy rains have subsided in Valencia, downpours have been moving north along the Mediterranean coast to Catalonia.

Up to 180 millimeters (7 inches) of rain could fall over just 12 hours in Barcelona, Spain’s second-largest city, according to national forecaster Aemet.

“Absolute precaution,” Catalonia’s regional President Salvador Illa wrote on X Monday. “We are sending mobile phone alerts in several areas due to the continued and torrential rains.”

The storms on Oct. 29 caught authorities in Valencia unprepared. The main alert system to mobile phones wasn’t activated until after the storms started and thousands of people were caught unaware.

The storms are one of Spain’s worst natural disasters in living memory. Such extreme storms, known in Spain as “danas,” are likely to become more common as climate change increases the frequency and intensity of heat waves. Record temperatures in the Mediterranean are also strengthening their effects.

Mudslides and overflowing rivers meant that cities where little rain had fallen in the preceding days were impacted the most. Hundreds of people were trapped inside buildings for several days without water or electricity.

Six days after the storms, the worst-hit areas are struggling to recover. In many streets of Paiporta, a town on the outskirts of the city of Valencia, hundreds of soldiers are working to clean roads, remove rubble from destroyed buildings, and pump out muddy knee-deep water from garages, houses and shops.

José María Menchor, a police officer who lives in the western Spanish city of Caceres, some 650 kilometers from Paiporta, is among the thousands of volunteers who have traveled to the flooded areas to help with rescue efforts.

“It’s such chaos that we don’t know where to start from,” Menchor said, standing next to a large fridge that was washed into the street.

On Sunday, Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and King Felipe VI were heckled by a crowd of people, who pelted them with mud and sticks. Sanchez was whisked away by his security detail, while the monarch stayed to speak with protesters.

Top photo: Railway lines destroyed by extreme flooding in Paiporta, Spain, on Nov. 3. Photographer: Angel Garcia/Bloomberg.