The forecasts were met and the alert proved justified, although the distribution of storms and rainfall is always uncertain. From Monday afternoon, during the early hours of Tuesday and throughout the day, the showers covered the southeast of the Iberian Peninsula, unloading torrents of rain that, in several locations, represented a record for accumulated water in the month of May. This was the case in the Valencian municipality of Ontinyent, where the storm discharged 127.4 liters per square meter, an unknown volume in a century, according to data from the Spanish Meteorological Agency.
Despite the numerous incidents registered both in AlmerÃa and in Murcia, Alicante and the south of Valencia, at the time of closing this edition there had not been any serious personal misfortune, although several drivers had to be rescued from cars in different roads; as in the Alicante town of Alcosser, where firefighters from the Provincial Consortium had to make a human chain to rescue a man from his car who was about to be dragged away by the waters.
Nearly 40 municipalities in the Valencian Community, the majority in Vega Baja and Baix Vinalopó, announced the day before that the schools would remain closed, but not the capital of the province, where both the University and the Alicante City Council reacted at mid-morning yesterday, suspending school activity from two in the afternoon.
The late response was criticized both by the political parties – which suspended most of their campaign events – as well as by students displaced from towns where there had been heavy rains and by parents of students who were forced to pick up their children on time. to eat in anticipation of some rain that had been announced since the day before.
However, the rainy front had moved to the north, so it was the city of Valencia that registered heavy rains in the middle of the afternoon. According to Aemet, although in the afternoon the rains were generally weak and scattered, the orange alert level was maintained until 9 in the morning today due to the possibility of heavy and locally persistent rainfall throughout the province of Alicante and in the south of Valencia.
Previously, during the early hours of Tuesday, it was the town of Cartagena that accumulated 61 liters per square meter in its urban area, which forced the Local Police, together with Civil Protection and the fire brigade to carry out numerous interventions to rescue people who were left. trapped in their vehicles. The suspension of classes avoided many inconveniences, although the city suffered extensive damage to its street furniture.
For the person in charge of the Climatology Laboratory of the University of Alicante, Professor Jorge Olcina, the episode of rains has been beneficial so far because the precipitations have fallen “without force and without causing damage” throughout the province of Alicante, although in quantities higher in the regions of l’Alcoià , El Comtat and Marina Alta, where between 100 and 150 liters per square meter were collected.
According to Olcina, the spring DANAs generate less water and energy than those of September and October because the Mediterranean Sea is less hot, which explains why on this occasion there have been no significant floods, but only the rise of ravines. and boulevards without significant damage.
