Catalonia Floods: Two Dead, One Missing as Barcelona Records Wettest Day in Years
Besòs river passes danger level, trains and flights disrupted as storms push north towards Girona
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File photo: The Besòs river at Montcada i Reixac, near Barcelona, Spain. Photo: pere prlpz, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Two people have died and another is missing after torrential rain triggered flooding across Catalonia in north-eastern Spain, authorities said on Sunday, as the storm moved north towards Girona.
"There are two fatalities and at least one person missing," David Borrell, head of the Catalonia region's fire service, told a press conference, according to AFP.
Who were the victims
One person died when a wall collapsed at a campsite in Tordera, north of Barcelona, while another drowned in a flooded garage in Montornès del Vallès, Catalan firefighters said, as reported by DW. Emergency services were searching for a person swept away by a stream in Pineda de Mar, about 52 kilometres north of Barcelona.
Catalan regional president Salvador Illa confirmed the second death on social media. "I regret the death of a second person as a result of the storm. My condolences to their family. The situation continues to be complicated," he wrote, according to Euronews. Illa also urged residents to exercise "the greatest caution", DW reported.
Record rain in Barcelona
Euronews said Barcelona saw its wettest day in at least 20 years. Catalonia's weather service, Meteocat, recorded 190.8 litres per square metre in the Raval district, including 3.4 litres in a single minute and 36.1 litres in half an hour. Spain's AEMET weather agency said more than 100 millimetres fell overnight in numerous locations, according to DW.
The Catalan Water Agency said the final stretch of the Besòs river had exceeded its danger threshold, with an imminent risk of flooding. Residents near the river were told to move to upper floors if flooding occurred.
By early Sunday, Catalonia's fire service had received 682 calls, most of them about flooding, Euronews reported. In Granollers, firefighters rescued people trapped in their cars at a flooded roundabout, some of them standing on the roofs of their vehicles.
Travel halted as alerts widen
Local rail services were disrupted and flights at Barcelona airport were cancelled or delayed, DW said. Civil Protection sent a fresh Es-Alert on Sunday to residents in Vallès Oriental, Maresme, la Selva, Baix Empordà and Gironès, urging them to avoid all non-essential journeys.
Authorities warned people living near the Ridaura and Daro rivers in Girona, which had burst their banks, to stay at home, AFP reported. AEMET said the storms began easing around Barcelona at midday on Sunday but were moving north.
The storms are linked to a weather system known in Spain as a DANA, or "cold drop". The flooding comes almost two years after a DANA killed 238 people in eastern Spain, mostly in Valencia, in October 2024, DW noted.
