The maritime storm that affects the coast of the Iberian Peninsula has already claimed four lives in the last few hours. At noon, the death of two people was known, a man and a woman, in two different cases, swept away by the strong waves that have hit the coasts of Asturias due to Storm Nelson. A few hours later, the death of two people on the Miracle beach in Tarragona, one of them a minor, was added to this tragic balance.
The first of the victims was a man who died in San Esteban de Pravia, in the municipality of Muros de Nalón. The victim, a tourist, was observing the sea near Punta de la Barra when he was dragged by the waves. Some witnesses raised the alarm at 1:01 p.m., according to 112 Asturias, and, despite the action of the emergency services, nothing could be done to save his life. “At 1:48 p.m. the team reports that it has located and recovered the lifeless body of the deceased,” the principality’s emergency team highlighted in a statement.
A few minutes before, at 12:59, 112 received another notice about a woman falling into the sea in the port of Cudillero. According to the note, the woman was being hit against the rocks by the waves. “While rescue resources were being mobilized, a new call reported that the victim had been rescued by a boat that was taking her to the port. The woman was unconscious and resuscitation maneuvers were being performed on her,” she says. Again, despite the work of the Urgent Medical Care Service (SAMU), they have only been able to certify her death.
The other two deceased are two people who drowned on the coast of Tarragona. The events occurred in the Fortí de la Reina area, when bathers were unable to get out of the water due to the state of the sea. As police sources have confirmed, one of the victims is a young minor who fell into the water. A couple realized that the boy could not get out of the sea and the man jumped into the water to help him, who also ended up losing his life.
Maritime Rescue was able to take them out of the water with the Helimer 221 helicopter and took them to the medical emergency device that was set up on the beach, but nothing could be done to save their lives. According to Maritime Rescue, two other people had jumped into the sea to help the victims and had to be rescued with the Red Cross helicopter and boat.
Storm Nelson brings a Holy Thursday marked by meteorological instability, with intense rain in many parts of Spain, very strong winds in large areas of the country, which will reach extreme gusts of up to 90 km/h, and waves of up to 8 meters in some points of the coast.
The provinces most affected by the wind will be Lleida, Girona, Huesca, Navarra, Cáceres, Badajoz, Toledo, Guadalajara, Cantabria, Zaragoza, Teruel, Córdoba, Seville, Huelva, Pontevedra, Orense, Álava, La Rioja, Murcia, and all of Castilla y León, with very strong gusts of between 70 and 90 km/h, so extreme caution is recommended.
This wind will translate into very bad seas in the coastal areas, with an orange alert for the entire northern coast of the peninsula and the Balearic Islands, and especially strong waves in A Coruña and Pontevedra, where there are waves of more than 8 meters.
The rain will not let up either, and there are provinces where the accumulated precipitation will be between 40 and 50 liters in just 12 hours, as is the case of Jaén, Córdoba, Seville, Huelva, Ávila, Cáceres, Pontevedra, Orense, Ciudad Real, Toledo , and Huesca.
The Cantabrian mountain range, in León, and the area of ??Sanabria (Zamora) will be dyed white today, with an accumulation of snow of more than 5 centimeters above about 1,200 meters.
The rain and, especially, the wind today keep practically all of Spain – except Madrid and the autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla – under some type of alert, so bad weather will be widespread, with a special impact on the aforementioned provinces.
