One dead in Catalonia and transport halted as flash floods strike eastern Spain

Fatal flash flooding in Catalonia

Torrential downpours swept across eastern Spain on Wednesday night, causing localized flooding and one confirmed death in Catalonia. Firefighters recovered the body of a man on Thursday morning in the municipality of Olivella, located in the Garraf area roughly 40 kilometres west of Barcelona. The victim was swept away while attempting to navigate a swollen stream in his vehicle during the peak of the rainfall. Emergency personnel discovered his body approximately 500 metres from the location where the submerged car came to rest. Catalan emergency authorities had initially identified the missing individual as a woman before correcting the report following the recovery operation.

In Olivella, we located the lifeless body of a man about 500 metres from where the vehicle swept away by the stream was found, in an accessible area.

Extreme downpours across Valencia

The storm system produced severe flooding across the neighbouring Valencian Community, releasing concentrated rainfall over very short intervals. Regional weather association AVAMET registered over 70 millimetres of rain in only 30 minutes across several municipalities in the province. In the town of Torrent, emergency personnel rescued several motorists whose vehicles became submerged in rapidly rising floodwaters. Municipal firefighters in Valencia responded to more than 250 emergency calls overnight to clear blocked drainage conduits, remove fallen tree branches, and clear impassable streets. At 22:08 on Wednesday evening, authorities broadcast an ES-Alert notification to mobile devices across the province, instructing residents to avoid all travel, stay clear of riverbeds and ravines, and move to higher floors of their homes.

Rarely have we seen such rainfall accumulations in 30 minutes.

Disruption across transit and aviation networks

Inundated infrastructure severely affected ground transport and air travel across Catalonia and Valencia throughout Wednesday night and Thursday morning. In Barcelona, municipal transport operators closed multiple metro stations and rerouted bus lines away from submerged roadways, while regional commuter rail lines faced widespread delays. Airport operator Aena reported 23 cancelled flights and dozens of delayed departures at Barcelona-El Prat airport. In Valencia, authorities suspended operations across all lines of the urban metro system. Flooding also forced the complete closure of Valencia Airport for several hours, requiring the diversion of 12 scheduled inbound flights before operations resumed shortly before 23:30.

Emergency response and meteorological outlook

State meteorological agency AEMET had briefly declared a red alert for the Barcelona coastline on Wednesday due to flash flood risks before lowering warnings to orange across eastern Spain on Thursday. Emergency services in Catalonia received over 850 emergency calls and logged more than 500 incidents relating to property damage and flooded roads. In the province of Valencia, emergency dispatchers recorded 478 incidents, while emergency notifications were also sent to residents in the southern province of Almería. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez publicly urged maximum caution, advising citizens that the severe storms were generating very complicated situations. Forecasters expect scattered heavy showers to continue along the Mediterranean coast through Friday, followed by sunny conditions and temperatures reaching 28 to 30 degrees Celsius next week.