The forecasts were fulfilled and the warning proved justified, although the distribution of storms and precipitation is always uncertain. From the afternoon of Monday, during the morning of Tuesday and throughout the whole day, the showers crossed the south-east of the Iberian Peninsula and discharged torrents of rain which, in several localities, amounted to a record of accumulated water in a month of May. This was the case, for example, in the Valencian municipality of Ontinyent, where the storm discharged 127.4 liters per square meter, a volume unknown for a century, according to data from the Spanish Meteorological Agency.
Despite the numerous incidents recorded both in Almeria and Murcia, Alicante and the south of Valencia, at the time of closing this edition there had been no serious personal misfortune, although several drivers had to be rescued of cars on different roads; as in the Alicante town of Alcosser, where the firefighters of the Provincial Consortium had to form a human chain to rescue a man from his car, who was about to be swept away by the waters.
Nearly 40 municipalities in the Valencian Community, the majority of Baix Segura and Baix Vinalopó, announced on the eve that schools would be closed, not so the capital of the province, where both the University and Alicante City Council reacted at mid-morning yesterday suspending the teaching activity from two o’clock in the afternoon. The late response was criticized both by the political parties – who suspended most of their campaign events – as well as by students displaced from localities where heavy rains had been recorded and by parents of students who were forced to collect the his children at lunchtime in anticipation of rain that had been announced since the day before. It had lacked foresight, they said.
However, the rainy front had moved to the north, so it was the city of Valencia that recorded intense rain in the middle of the afternoon. According to Aemet, although in the afternoon the rains were generally weak and scattered, the orange alert level would remain until nine o’clock today in the face of the possibility of heavy and locally persistent precipitation throughout the province of Alicante and the south of Valencia.
Previously, during the morning of Tuesday, it was the town of Cartagena that accumulated 61 liters per square meter in its urban core. This mobilized the local police, together with Civil Protection and the fire brigade. These bodies made numerous interventions to rescue people who were trapped in their vehicles. The suspension of classes avoided many inconveniences, although the city suffered a lot of damage to urban furniture.
The regional president, Fernando López Miras, announced that this Wednesday activity would be restored in the schools, institutes and universities of the affected municipalities.
