Thousands of people have been evacuated from their homes in the Costa del Sol region of southern Spain after a red weather alert was issued due to extreme rain and flooding.
Spain’s Civil Protection Agency sent a mass alert to phones in Málaga province after 10pm local time (9pm GMT) on Tuesday evening, warning of an “extreme risk of rainfall”.
The area, including the tourist resorts of Marbella, Velez and Estepona, is expected to bear the brunt of the extreme weather phenomenon known as a “Dana”.
Several other regions in Spain remain on alert as the new weather front is expected to bring heavy rain and low temperatures, just weeks after the country was devastated by flash floods that have killed more than 220 people so far.
Catalonia in northeastern Spain, especially the coast near Tarragona, is also under red alert until Wednesday evening.
Schools across the southern province of Málaga have been closed, while many supermarkets have remained shuttered.
About 3,000 people living near the Guadalhorce River have been told to leave their homes, Andalusia’s regional government said.
The minister of presidency of the regional government, Antonio Sanz, said: “We have not evacuated entire towns, but rather specific areas linked to the riverbank.
“This decision has been communicated to the Government of Spain in order to obtain cooperation from the state security forces and authorities.”
Precautionary measures are being taken in other parts of Spain, with the eastern and southern Mediterranean areas being the most vulnerable.
Valencia is still recovering from the first “Dana” weather system in late October [Reuters]
Spanish meteorological agency Aemet has placed parts of the Valencia and Andalusia regions, as well as the Balearic Islands, on orange alert from now until Thursday.
Aemet warns of rainfall and storms that could be “very strong to severe”.
That orange alert is the second highest and signals a significant meteorological event “with a certain degree of danger to normal activities”.
In Valencia, school classes and sports activities were suspended in some areas and sandbags piled up to protect the center of Aldaia town.
However, this second Dana weather system is not expected to be as dramatic as the red alert on October 29, when the Valencia region in particular suffered unprecedented loss of life and property damage.
Elsewhere, rescue teams searching for the bodies of two young brothers swept away by floods in Valencia two weeks ago said their bodies had been found.
Izan Matías, 5, and Rubén Matías, 3, were pulled from the arms of their father Victor Matías when the flood swept through their home in Valencia on the evening of October 29.
Their aunt Barabara Sastre confirmed to the BBC that the boys had been found. Their bodies were found in different locations.
“My little angels, we have finally found you,” family friend David Garcia wrote online. “Two stars shine brighter in the sky.”
Yesterday, search teams had concentrated on a section of the Pollo River about 6 miles (3.7 km) from the family home.
The boys’ uncle, Iván, told the BBC he was extremely grateful for all the support they had received and hoped his nephews would be found.
Volunteers from the Canary Islands and other parts of Spain had joined recovery specialists from Mexico, who normally work in the aftermath of earthquakes.
On Monday, the family dog was found dead in a garage in the town of Paiporta, more than 12 km from their home in La Curra, a neighborhood of Mas del Jutge.
Dana weather systems form when an area of low pressure is “cut off” from the main flow of the jet stream.
This means that instead of traveling through a region relatively quickly, they become blocked over the same area, leading to persistent rainfall for several days.
Colder air high in the atmosphere meets warmer air moving in from the Mediterranean Sea, intensifying the storm.
