A storm of snow, rain and wind caused traffic problems on around thirty Catalan roads yesterday Saturday and left a person missing at sea in Barcelona, ??whose search will resume this Sunday. In a Catalonia thirsty for water due to the extreme drought it suffers, rainfall fell in a large part of the territory, especially in the eastern half, the Pyrenees and the coast, in some points with intensity.
Until 20:00, the accumulated precipitation exceeded 50 mm in sectors of Central Catalonia, Montseny, Gironès and Selva, with 80.8 mm in Viladrau; while it was less intense (less than 5 mm) in Terres de l’Ebre (Tarragona) and the south of the Lleida region of Segrià.
Civil Protection activated various prevention plans due to the rain, wind, strong waves and snow that has fallen in Catalonia, on the day with the most snowfall this winter and with the forecast that the storm will continue this Sunday. The snow level was between 800 and 900 meters in the Pyrenees, which left a thick white blanket in the mountains of between 20 and 50 cm.
The negative side is that it also caused problems in some ski resorts: in Port del Comte the storm caused an electrical breakdown that forced the ski resort to be evacuated at noon, and Port Ainé had to close due to bad weather.
The snow complicated traffic on around thirty Catalan roads, including the C-16 in Bellver de Cerdanya, at the northern access to the Cadí tunnel. At this point there were delays, especially during the morning, because the vehicles leaving through the northern access found snow on the road and had to stop to put on the chains, which generated queues.
Apart from this section of the C-16, chains were required in various sections of the N-260, in the Port de la Bonaigua (C-28) and on the N-230 between Vilaller and Viella, all of them in the province from Lleida; while in Girona the GIV-4016 was cut in Toses. On the other hand, a landslide forced the interruption of traffic, in both directions of the march, on the N-260 highway as it passes through La Pobla de Segur (Lleida).
Rain and waves were present on the Catalan coast, with warnings of waves of more than 2.5 meters. At around 2 p.m., the Civil Guard was alerted that a man had seen from land how another, apparently a swimmer because he was wearing a wetsuit, was tied to a buoy in front of the Mar Bella beach in Barcelona, ??but He later disappeared into the sea.
A large team of the Civil Guard, Maritime Rescue, Firefighters of Barcelona and the Generalitat, Guardia Urbana, Mossos, Red Cross and health personnel then began the search for this missing person, but have not been able to locate him. With sunset, the operation was suspended until this Sunday.
On the other hand, for reasons that are still being investigated, the driver of an all-terrain vehicle died when he left the road on the C-1412b road as it passed through Artesa de Segre (Lleida) and fell about four meters into the void, causing an accident in which another person was injured.
The 112 emergency service reported that, as a result of the adverse weather, in the last few hours it had received a total of 281 calls for 167 incidents.
