The cold drop has also caused serious complications in Catalonia, where Civil Protection has requested this morning the confinement of the municipality of Alcanar, in the Montsià region (Tarragona), due to the accumulation of rain and the risk of flooding due to the overflow of ravines. An order that has been suspended after two in the afternoon due to improved weather conditions. However, it is advisable to restrict mobility in the areas affected by the downpours and on the coast, due to the forecast of strong waves.
In the last 24 hours, nearly 220 liters per square meter have fallen in this Tarragona municipality, most of it concentrated in three hours, which has caused incidents, such as roadblocks, flooding and falling branches and other elements. The Generalitat Fire Department has also reported that three buildings in the Montsià region have suffered structural damage and that last night they had to rescue two people in Alcanar after the roof of a farmhouse collapsed.
Since the start of the rainstorm that has hit that area of Tarragona since yesterday afternoon, the firefighters have received about 150 incident reports in the Ebro delta, where about eighty firefighters continue to work this midday, in most cases in floods in the municipalities of Alcanar, Santa Bàrbara and Amposta, the most affected by the heavy rains. In no case, they have specified, have there been any injuries.
Until 1:00 p.m. this afternoon, the 112 telephone number has received 330 calls related to 213 incidents related to rain and wind in the delta, according to Civil Protection.
Civil Protection has sent an alert to all the mobile phones of the inhabitants of the area to ask them to confine themselves to their homes. Some neighbors have begun to spread videos on social networks in which you can see the overflow of the Llop ravine, at the height of the houses of Alcanar, which has overflowed again like two years ago.
In an interview in RAC1, the director of Civil Protection, Imma Soler, has advised the confinement of the population of Alcanar and go up to the upper floors of the houses in case water enters them. In this sense, she has asked to limit mobility as much as possible.
So far, the cold drop has dumped very significant amounts of precipitation in the last few hours in Terres de l'Ebre, with more than 200 liters in Montsià, and has forced the AP-7 and N-340 to be cut by floods. The N-340 is interrupted in a 3-kilometre section between Amposta and Alcanar, according to the Servei Català de Trànsit (SCT), while circulation on the AP-7 between Freginals and Ulldecona is allowed again after being cut off this morning by water accumulated on the road.
In total, at 12 o'clock traffic was still interrupted on four roads: the N-340 near Alcanar, the C-12 (between Tortosa and Roquetes), the TV-3443 in Amposta and the T-331 between Santa Bárbara and Tortosa. At the same time, the Rodalies service on the R16 line has been cut between Ulldecona and Aldea stations.
The torrential rains have mainly affected the regions of Montsià and Baix Ebre. In the last 24 hours, 243 liters per square meter have been recorded in Mas de Barberans, 217 in Alcanar, 200 in Santa Barbara or 159 liters in Ulldecona, according to data from Meteocat stations.
The forecast is for the rainstorm to lose intensity in the next few hours, although there may still be occasional episodes of heavy rainfall, especially in the southern regions of Catalonia. At the moment, the Inuncat and Ventcat plans remain activated, due to the risk of flooding and strong winds in the central and pre-coastal area.
