The isolated depression at high levels (DANA) that has affected extensive areas of the country, with intense and abundant rains, is beginning to subside, but during the last 72 hours it has caused at least five deaths (three in Toledo), in addition to three missing and thousands of incidents: flooded homes, rivers that have risen, collapsed roads and chaos in transport, especially in rail.
On Saturday, two hikers died in the Gorgol ravine in Tramacastilla de Tena, in Sallent de Gállego (Oscar). To those deaths, we must add three more in Toledo: a young man in Casarrubios del Monte, trapped in a flooded elevator in a garage, a resident of the Gadea stream and a driver swept away by the water in Bargas. In addition, the possible death of another person in a nearby area is being investigated.
Three people are still missing. The first is a woman who is wanted in a steep area of Bargas (Toledo). The second is a resident of Aldea del Fresno (Madrid) whose vehicle was swept away by a flood. His wife and two children were also in the car. The woman and one of the children were rescued alive. The other son, aged 10, was saved because he climbed a tree, as this newspaper also explains.
The third missing person is an 83-year-old man, who left the residence where he lived in the Madrid town of Villamanta and was swept away by the current. Hundreds of people were rescued from rooftops. Only in the town of Escalona, in Toledo, one of the most affected provinces, a dozen people had to take refuge on roofs to escape the waters.
In addition to the problems with rail transport, which experienced new cancellations yesterday Monday, several roads in Tarragona, Madrid and Toledo woke up affected by cuts, which continued well into the day. The effects in Tarragona were mainly focused on the C-12, near Tortosa. Warnings to caution on all roads were constant by the general direction of Traffic.
Renfe was bewildered by the criticism – which it considers unfair – of the lack of agility and reflexes. A spokesperson for the company recalled, without mentioning Iryo, that Renfe was not the only operator affected by the incidents of the storm, and explained that DANA forced the mobilization of more than a thousand workers in the operations management centers and to the customer service teams in person and over the phone. Renfe assures that it has issued more than 65,000 messages (SMS and e-mails) warning of "possible effects due to the storm".
The task, however, was obscured by childish mistakes that reinforce the idea of a lack of reflexes, such as the institutional tweet that the company sends out every morning, at 7 o'clock, in which it says good morning to all official languages of the State and which yesterday was not interrupted or nuanced. Many passengers, who saw their journey extended for many hours or were diverted far from their destination, did not understand the message, as if it was another Monday, and not a Monday after a chaotic week and when the situation had not yet been restored.
According to Renfe, more than 50,000 passengers had availed themselves of the possibility of canceling or exchanging their tickets free of charge since Sunday. Adif, the administrator of the railway infrastructure, assured that it is "working as quickly as it can to repair the damage", which yesterday still affected passengers, despite the slow return to normality.
According to the information updated by the company, traffic on the Madrid-Andalusia line had resumed yesterday, but "with speed limitations" because the line "suffered damage to the signaling and infrastructure management systems" that they cause traffic to develop "in a restrictive manner" (two trains per hour in each direction), with "irregularity and delays".
Traffic was also restored on the Mediterranean corridor, which was cut off the night before and badly affected by the floods between the Aldea-Amposta and Ulldecona stations. Despite this, normality will still take time to arrive and circulation is "with speed limitation". On the conventional route, the trains "gradually recover the usual frequency of passage", although it is still necessary to provide an alternative service by road at some points.
The employer of the insurance companies reminded that those affected can consult the Naturalmente protegidos website to find out which company or body they can apply for the compensation that corresponds to them. One piece of data illustrates the importance of the claims looming over the sector: a major firm dealt with more than 2,757 claims notices from Sunday midnight to yesterday noon.
