Just three weeks ago, two episodes of torrential rain, including hail, struck the coast of Tarragona and Baix Penedès within less than 72 hours of each other. Severe flooding was recorded, hundreds of firefighter interventions took place, and the collapse of a wall caused the death of a mother and her daughter. There were no alerts on mobile phones either before or during the emergency, and this lack of foresight generated criticism and outrage among the public. This Wednesday, the opposite happened. In as many as five counties, all educational activities and non-urgent healthcare activities were suspended for ten hours. Mobility was restricted, teleworking was recommended, and even, following the alert issued by Protecció Civil, the High Court of Justice of Catalonia suspended judicial activity. And with all alerts activated, the storm barely wet these five counties.
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“We cannot always send Es-Alert and not every time we send the alert will an emergency occur, but we will try to be as preventive as possible,” acknowledged the Deputy Director General of Coordination and Management, Imma Solé, this Wednesday at noon, after announcing, four hours earlier than planned, the lifting of restrictions. On Monday afternoon, with a risk level of five out of six, Es-Alerts were sent warning of the suspension of classes and other restrictions to all the towns in Baix and Alt Penedès, Garraf, Baix Llobregat, and Vallès Occidental. The Minister of the Interior, Núria Parlon, appeared to announce that the restrictions would start at seven in the morning and remain until five in the afternoon.
“We cannot always send Es-Alert and not every time we send the alert will an emergency occur”
The Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), the University of Barcelona (UB), and the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC) also announced the suspension of all their activities in view of the expected storms and torrential rains. The President of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, called for “prudence” in the face of the heavy rain episode, and the public responded. As evidence, the calm morning recorded on the roads leading to Barcelona, with a traffic volume much lower than usual for a working day.
“The storms moved faster than expected and discharged over the sea; the storm feedback phenomenon was less than expected, although it left significant amounts of water in specific points and some hail episodes,” explained Santi Segalà, head of forecasting at the Meteorological Service of Catalonia (Meteocat) at the noon briefing. The rains were not as intense as the meteorological models indicated in the five counties on alert but, however, downpours were recorded in other parts of Central Catalonia and the Pre-Pyrenees, where 61.2 l/m2 was recorded in Berguedà, 43 l/m2 in Sant Joan de les Abadesses, and 32.7 in Olot.
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By noon, the Generalitat Firefighters had worked on about fifty alerts in several counties, although none were serious, and the emergency phone 112 had received 214 calls by 12:00 pm for 197 incidents related to the episode. Regarding why alerts had not been sent in these points where the rain had been more intense, Segalà responded that “the conditions were not met” like those near the coast, where models indicated strong storms.
Between twelve and five in the afternoon this Wednesday, firefighters worked on 39 alerts, accumulating 91 interventions since the previous midnight, most of them in Girona (34). Overall, the main impacts of this torrential rain episode were the thirty flights canceled early in the morning at El Prat airport due to storms recorded offshore, and delays of more than half an hour on trains in the southern corridor. During the severe thunderstorm on Monday night to Tuesday, a lightning strike damaged the catenary in Sant Vicenç dels Horts, which also caused delays on high-speed trains between Madrid and Barcelona and forced the line to be cut for two hours for repairs. Finally, service was able to resume from 12:48 pm.
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