TORRENTIAL rain and flash floods have plunged Catalunya into rush-hour chaos this morning as extreme weather batters the region for the second time in 48 hours.
State weather agency AEMET issued a red alert for ‘extreme risk’ across the Barcelona coastline and inland pre-coastal areas, with stationary storms dumping over 90mm of rain in a single hour.
The deluge struck as morning commuters and school runs were well underway, sparking local fury over delays to the emergency alert system.
Residents in Granollers, a market town roughly 30km north-east of Barcelona that has been at the centre of the storm, reported that the government’s ES-Alert warning only sounded on mobile phones after thousands were already out on the roads.
“People heading to work, the children to school,” one resident complained.
“Twenty minutes later the alert arrived on the mobiles. Today they have put thousands of people in danger.”
Granollers had already recorded 250mm of rain between October 1 and 4, with an additional 80mm falling on saturated ground in the early hours of Monday morning.
The intense downpours sent the nearby Tenes river surging well past its danger threshold, with water flows at the Llica de Vall measuring station rocketing from one cubic metre per second to a peak of 136 cubic metres per second at 8.35am.
Further downstream, the Besos river in Santa Coloma has exceeded 90 cubic metres per second as civil protection authorities urged the public to avoid all riverbanks, fords, and low-lying ground.
The flooding has brought severe disruption across the Rodalies commuter rail network, completely severing the R2, R8 and R11 lines between Granollers and Sant Andreu from 8.45am after tracks were blocked by floodwaters and debris.
Services on the R2 Nord have been cut back to run only between Castelldefels and Sant Andreu, cutting off a key railway artery between the north of the province and Barcelona airport.
In Barcelona city centre, the railway tunnel under Plaza Catalunya remains shut after water accumulated overnight, forcing rail operator Adif to deploy three drainage pumps to clear the line.
Road networks have faced similar gridlock, with the C-352 tunnel shut in both directions between Les Franqueses del Valles and Canovelles.
Landslides have blocked the C-1415a near Castellar del Valles for 9km, alongside closures on the BV-5159 between La Roca del Valles and Vilanova del Valles and restrictions on the N-150 in Terrassa.
Motorists on the C-32 coastal motorway were trapped in heavy tailbacks leaving Mataro, in the Maresme area north of Barcelona, as drivers attempted to escape flooded local routes.
Town halls in Granollers, La Roca del Valles, Vilanova del Valles, Canovelles, Orrius, and Palau-solita i Plegamans suspended all school classes for the day.
Catalunya’s 112 emergency switchboard had handled 8,721 calls relating to 6,443 weather incidents by 9am, with nearly 400 calls logged in just two hours from the hardest-hit areas.
AEMET’s red warning remains active until 10am, with civil protection chiefs advising residents across coastal and prelitoral Barcelona to seek higher ground and avoid all non-essential travel.
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