Several countries around the Mediterranean have been battered by deadly flooding caused by heavy rain for days, with record-breaking rainfall inundating parts of Spain’s Catalonia region.
In the area around Barcelona, emergency services received thousands of calls for help Sunday morning after at least two people died and one person remained missing, authorities said.
Catalonia’s regional weather service Meteocat said Barcelona and surrounding municipalities experienced exceptional rainfall, with several monitoring stations breaking long-standing records.
At Barcelona’s Can Bruixa station, 213 liters per square meter (8.4 inches) of rain were recorded, making it the wettest day in the station’s 39-year history.
Elsewhere, nearly 288 liters per square meter (11.3 inches) were measured at Vilassar de Mar, while Mataró received more than 250 liters (9.8 inches) and Granollers nearly 250 liters (9.8 inches) per square meter.
DEADLY CATALONIA FLOODS
One man died after a wall collapsed at a campsite in Tordera, north of Barcelona, while another person died in Montornès del Vallès, authorities said. Emergency workers were also searching for a missing person in Pineda de Mar.
The torrential rain flooded homes, submerged vehicles and severely disrupted transportation. Local train services were suspended, flights at Barcelona airport were canceled or delayed, and roads were inundated.
Authorities issued emergency alerts warning residents of Barcelona and surrounding communities about the danger of flooding as the Besòs River rose to dangerous levels.
In Granollers, firefighters rescued people trapped inside vehicles at a flooded roundabout, while images from L’Hospitalet de Llobregat near Barcelona showed residents standing knee-deep in water.
Flemish resident Mark Meesen, who experienced the storm in Barcelona, described the conditions as “apocalyptic,” saying streets turned into small rivers and traffic and street lights went out. He recalled that at one point the rain was so intense he could barely see through his windshield.
RECORD RAINFALL
The Barcelona area experienced its wettest Saturday in at least two decades, according to Meteocat data, while some individual monitoring stations recorded their wettest day since observations began there decades ago.
Conditions later improved in Barcelona, where sunshine returned, while the heaviest rain moved north toward Girona and the French border.
Other parts of Spain were also affected, including areas around Bilbao in the Basque Country. A 102-year-old woman had earlier died in flooding in Madrigueras in central Spain.
The violent weather extended across the Mediterranean to Greece, where days of heavy rainfall caused widespread flooding on the island of Crete.
Meteorologists reported up to 500 liters per square meter (19.7 inches) of rain in the Rethymno region, while about 22,000 lightning strikes were recorded across Crete and the southern Aegean Sea within 24 hours.
CRETE FLOODING
Streets were flooded, homes damaged and electricity supplies disrupted, while several people became trapped in vehicles.
Authorities evacuated tourists from parts of southeastern Crete as a precaution while heavy rain continued.
Along parts of the coast, parked vehicles were swept into the sea, while eight workers were reported stranded in the popular Samaria Gorge.
In Ierapetra on Crete’s southern coast, tourists were evacuated, and one woman was taken to a hospital as a precaution.
On the Greek island of Rhodes, a 58-year-old German tourist died Friday after being struck by lightning, while her husband suffered minor injuries. Greek forecasters said the heavy rainfall was expected to continue for several more hours before conditions gradually improved.
The flooding marked another weather-related setback for the region after a record-breaking summer of extreme heat affected much of Europe.
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