The Generalitat of Catalonia has agreed to restrict mobility this Wednesday, implement teleworking, and suspend outdoor educational and sports activities between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m. in the Baix Llobregat, Vallès Occidental, Garraf, Alt Penedès, and Baix Penedès regions due to the forecast of heavy rains. This was announced yesterday by the Minister of the Interior, Núria Parlon, at a press conference where she justified these restrictive measures due to the red alert of intensity five out of six for the risk of heavy rains in these five regions.
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These measures also include suspending non-urgent healthcare activities and those of day care centers for the elderly and people with mental disabilities. The Department of Health reported that urgent care in hospitals and CAPs will be maintained, as well as essential treatments such as dialysis or chemotherapy, while ordinary activities affected by the alert will be rescheduled.
Outdoor sports activities, non-urgent healthcare, and day care centers are also suspended
The Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) has also suspended all its teaching and administrative activities for this Wednesday.
Protecció Civil sent an Es-Alert message yesterday afternoon to residents of the affected towns to inform them about these measures, agreed upon yesterday at noon by the Inuncat technical committee, which activated the flood emergency plan alert phase on Monday.
The rain episode was expected to start Tuesday night in the Pyrenees and Pre-Pyrenees with some showers and to move from west to east, especially affecting the central regions of Catalonia, according to the head of the forecasting area of the Meteorological Service of Catalonia (SMC), Santi Segalà. The period of greatest risk, Minister Parlon specified, will be from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. tomorrow, when the rain will be torrential in some points of the five regions where restrictions will be applied. These territories could accumulate more than 40 liters of water per square meter in 30 minutes and more than 90 in three hours, according to the SMC, which warned, however, that there could be intense precipitation in almost all of Catalonia. The rains will be locally accompanied by violent weather phenomena such as tramontana and mistral winds, and maritime disturbances.
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Given these forecasts, warnings were also decided to be activated in the Empordà region, where the possibility of strong waves was considered in locations such as Cap de Creus. The episode will also bring a widespread drop in temperatures, which will fall between 5 and 10 degrees throughout Catalonia.
According to the forecast of the Meteorological Service, the rains will dissipate in the early hours of Thursday and will leave the last affected coastal regions by sea.
“We must have an attitude of caution and prevention,” assured the Minister of the Interior referring not only to the five regions where the highest rainfall intensity is expected but to the entire Catalan territory. In this regard, the deputy director of Protecció Civil, Imma Solé, asked the population to be extremely cautious and to apply preventive measures as soon as possible, such as moving vehicles out of flood-prone areas.
The rains, storms, gusts of wind, coastal phenomena, high temperatures, and rissagues will put eight autonomous communities on alert this Wednesday, a day on which four will reach the orange level due to rains and storms: besides Catalonia, the Balearic Islands, the Region of Murcia, and the Valencian Community, according to the forecast of the State Meteorological Agency (Aemet).
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