Three dead after heavy rain in Spain causes widespread floods


Neil Murphy
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At least three people died and three others were missing as record rainfall caused heavy flooding in central Spain.

Flooding shut roads, subway lines and high-speed train connections, authorities said on Monday.

Helicopters were sent to rescue people who had sought refuge on the roofs of their homes in the Toledo area some 50km south-west of Madrid, emergency services said.

The sudden downpour on Sunday and early Monday transformed streets into rivers of mud that swept away cars and bins in Madrid, Castile-La Mancha, Catalonia and Valencia regions.

Three people died in the countryside around the central city of Toledo, where the weather service AEMET registered record rainfall of 90 litres per square metre on Sunday.

One of the victims was a young man who was trapped in a lift that filled up with water, while another was inside a vehicle that flooded, police said.

The third person who died was a man, 50, who had been reported as missing. His body was found in the afternoon floating in a river near his home in the town of Camarena.

“It just kept raining and we were a little scared, but we were indoors so we were safe,” said Isabella Stewart, a US missionary living in Toledo.

Another Toledo resident, Ruben Gonzalez, said: “I live four blocks away and it was very strong. Everything is flooded. This is crazy.”

Residents walk in a flooded street, in the town of Aldea del Fresno, in the Madrid region. AFP
Residents walk in a flooded street, in the town of Aldea del Fresno, in the Madrid region. AFP

Later on Monday, AEMET said a cut-off low phenomenon – also known as weatherman's woe – had caused the downpour and was starting to move away from the country.

In the Madrid region, emergency services tackled almost 1,200 incidents overnight and firefighters and police were searching for one man in the rural area of Aldea del Fresno, south-west of Madrid, the emergency services said.

The man went missing with his son when their car was dragged into the Alberche River.

“The minor was rescued after he had climbed up a tree,” the Madrid emergency service said.

Rescuers were also looking for a woman who disappeared under similar circumstances near Toledo and for a man, 84, who was dragged away by streams of water and mud in Villamanta, west of Madrid.

Several roads in the region were closed as half a dozen bridges were torn down by water overflowing the riverbanks.

The Defence Ministry said it had deployed army engineers to build a Bailey bridge – a type of portable truss bridge – in Aldea del Fresno to connect the banks after the original bridge was swept away.

Several rail lines were closed in central Madrid early on Monday, though the service was re-established in most of the city during the morning, subway operator Metro de Madrid said.

Some high-speed connections between Madrid and the southern region of Andalusia have resumed, but trains were operating at lower-than-normal speeds.

Iraq negotiating over Iran sanctions impact
  • US sanctions on Iran’s energy industry and exports took effect on Monday, November 5.
  • Washington issued formal waivers to eight buyers of Iranian oil, allowing them to continue limited imports. Iraq did not receive a waiver.
  • Iraq’s government is cooperating with the US to contain Iranian influence in the country, and increased Iraqi oil production is helping to make up for Iranian crude that sanctions are blocking from markets, US officials say.
  • Iraq, the second-biggest producer in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, pumped last month at a record 4.78 million barrels a day, former Oil Minister Jabbar Al-Luaibi said on Oct. 20. Iraq exported 3.83 million barrels a day last month, according to tanker tracking and data from port agents.
  • Iraq has been working to restore production at its northern Kirkuk oil field. Kirkuk could add 200,000 barrels a day of oil to Iraq’s total output, Hook said.
  • The country stopped trucking Kirkuk oil to Iran about three weeks ago, in line with U.S. sanctions, according to four people with knowledge of the matter who asked not to be identified because they aren’t allowed to speak to media.
  • Oil exports from Iran, OPEC’s third-largest supplier, have slumped since President Donald Trump announced in May that he’d reimpose sanctions. Iran shipped about 1.76 million barrels a day in October out of 3.42 million in total production, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
  • Benchmark Brent crude fell 47 cents to $72.70 a barrel in London trading at 7:26 a.m. local time. U.S. West Texas Intermediate was 25 cents lower at $62.85 a barrel in New York. WTI held near the lowest level in seven months as concerns of a tightening market eased after the U.S. granted its waivers to buyers of Iranian crude.
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Updated: September 05, 2023, 1:26 PM`