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Dozens of people had to be rescued yesterday by police and firefighters after rivers burst their banks in the provinces of Cádiz and Málaga following the latest episode of torrential rain.
In Cádiz, over 250 call-outs were recorded, mainly rescuing people from their homes in the Chiclana de la Frontera area. Here, rainfall exceeded 90 litres per square metre per hour, about twice as much rain as in the average gota fría on the Mediterranean coast.
In some parts of Cádiz, rainfall exceeded 200 litres per square metre per hour, treble the average for the time of year and around five times the intensity of a typical gota fría. Between noon and 14.00hrs yesterday, firefighters rescued at least 25 people when their houses were on the brink of flooding.
The rivers Guadalobón and El Padrón, in Estepona, also burst their banks, as did the river Manilva in the town of the same name. Various homes in these two towns were evacuated when they began to flood. Guardia Civil officers have cordoned off 42 roads in Andalucía due to flooding, rivers due to overflow, or rockfalls and landslides.
In Cádiz, the A-48 and the N-340, in Chiclana de la Frontera and Conil de la Frontera respectively, have been blocked. The state meteorological agency, AEMET, says all over Andalucía its weather stations have recorded ‘historic’ levels of rainfall this month.
