After a fresh storm struck the Iberian peninsula on Thursday, Spanish rescuers frantically looked for a lady who had gone missing, while Portugal issued a warning about an increased danger of flooding following several months’ worth of rain falling in a matter of hours.
The seventh storm to strike the peninsula this year has already resulted in one verified death in Portugal. After being battered by rain and winds last week, which resulted in five fatalities, hundreds of injuries, and tens of thousands of people without electricity, Portugal has hardly recovered.
In many areas of Andalusia in southern Spain, Storm Leonardo dumped more than 40 centimeters (15 inches) of rain on Wednesday—the equivalent of several months’ worth of precipitation. Roads and rail lines were shut down, and thousands of people were evacuated.
For the Tagus River in the Santarem region, Portuguese authorities issued their highest flood alarm on Thursday.
Residents of houses close to the river in Sanatarem were evacuated by authorities. According to Mario Silvestre, Portugal’s head of civil protection, the flood threat along the Tagus is at its highest level in almost thirty years.
According to scientists, extreme weather events like the heatwaves and floods that have recently hit the Iberian Peninsula are becoming more often, intense, and long due to human-caused climate change.
River search: On Wednesday, the Spanish Civil Guard informed AFP that they were looking for a woman who had fallen into the Turvilla River in the Sayalonga municipality.
The warning level for Andalusia was dropped by Spain’s AEMET national weather agency, which stated that it will rain “less intensely.” Schools resumed in the majority of Andalusia, but they were halted in the most severely affected districts, where roads and railroads were still down.
The 34-year-old construction worker stated, “All we can do is try to adapt and hope for the best.”
According to Portugal’s IPMA meteorological office, last month was the second wettest January since 2000.
In Portugal’s north and center, train service was halted. Due to the possibility of flooding and falling trees, Lisbon’s municipal authorities closed parks and tunnels and stopped a number of river transit connections.
While trying to drive across a flooded region on Wednesday, a man in his 60s was swept away by the storm and died in the southeast.
