Spain closed schools and evacuated residents as heavy rains lashed the country on Wednesday, two weeks after the worst floods in a generation killed more than 200 people.
The national weather office AEMET has placed the southern province of Malaga and the northeastern region of Catalonia — the highest level — with heavy rains expected to last until Friday.
It is forecasting up to 180 millimeters (7 inches) of rain in just 12 hours under the red warning.
Torrential rains are expected to hit the flood-hit eastern part of Valencia, but local officials have warned that they may be unable to cope with silted sewers.
The storm on October 29 killed 223 people, mostly in the Valencia region, destroyed infrastructure, milled buildings and flooded fields. The final bill is expected to rise to tens of billions of euros.
“There is nothing to lose now,” Carlos Molto, a resident of Picanya in the city of Valencia, told local TV station A Punt.
– Departure from Malaga –
Parts of the town of Paiporta, one of the worst-hit areas, were flooded again after a major clean-up effort, according to local newspaper Las Provincias.
Many people had covered their homes with planks or sandbags to try to protect them from new floods.
The rain also meant that schools and universities were closed in large areas of Valencia, the southern region of Andalusia and Catalonia.
Malaga city hall has issued an order to evacuate houses on the banks of the Campanillas river due to the risk of flooding.
The start of the Billie Jean King Cup tennis final between Spain and Poland in the southern city was also postponed on Wednesday.
The governments of the regions of Andalusia and Catalonia sent emergency alerts to mobile phones warning people to be careful.
Critics have questioned the effectiveness of the Valencia region’s early warning system during the October rains, which in some cases reached citizens’ calls only when floodwaters were already flowing through cities.
Anger at the authorities for their mismanagement before and after the floods led to massive protests on Saturday. The largest, in the city of Valencia, attracted 130,000 people.
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