Thousands Evacuated As Storm Hits Spain, Portugal

A storm unleashing up to 35 centimetres (14 inches) of rain in 24 hours battered the Iberian Peninsula on Wednesday, forcing thousands of people in southern Spain from their homes, shutting schools and cancelling trains.

Spanish weather agency AEMET placed parts of the southern region of Andalusia under the highest red alert for the torrential rain dumped by Storm Leonardo.

An “extraordinary amount of rain” was falling in a region where “the ground is very saturated and riverbeds are already carrying a lot of water” from recent precipitation, AEMET spokesman Ruben del Campo said.

The mayor of the nearby city of Ronda, Maria Paz Fernandez, told public broadcaster RTVE that “the ground can no longer absorb” the constant downpours, speaking of “numerous landslides” in the surrounding rural areas.

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Andalusia’s top emergency official, Antonio Sanz, told a press conference that the situation was “very worrying” in the nearby mountainous municipality of Grazalema, where AEMET predicted up to 35 centimetres of rain in 24 hours.

Around 3,500 people had been evacuated in Andalusia, where more than 650 incidents were recorded, none of them causing serious damage, Sanz said, adding that one person was injured in a building collapse.

Spanish police published footage of flooded fields and torrents of water that were engulfing buildings and vehicles.

Hundreds of soldiers deployed to assist the rescue services, while all Andalusian schools were closed apart from in the region’s easternmost province of Almeria.

State railway company Renfe announced the cancellation of almost all suburban, regional and long-distance trains across Andalusia, with no bus replacement services possible due to the state of the roads, dozens of which were closed.

Scientists say human-driven climate change is worsening the intensity, frequency and length of such extreme weather events.

In October 2024, Spain suffered its deadliest floods in decades with more than 230 people killed, mostly in the eastern region of Valencia.

In Portugal, the emergency services had dealt with more than 3,300 incidents since Sunday, mostly due to flooding, falling trees and landslides, according to the Civil Protection authority.

The service had deployed more than 11,000 people to respond to the emergency, and around 200 residents were evacuated in central Portugal on Wednesday.

In Alcacer do Sal, south of Lisbon, the Sado river had burst its banks and the rising water had submerged the town’s main avenue, AFP journalists saw.

The Lisbon region and the Algarve in the south were most affected, with the rain and wind predicted to reach peak intensity overnight Wednesday to Thursday.

Tens of thousands of customers remained cut off from the power grid following last week’s Storm Kristin, which killed five people and injured hundreds.

AFP