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Flash flood in Spain’s Albacete kills 102-year-old woman, 90 rescued
A sudden flood in the town of Madrigueras in eastern Spain killed a 102-year-old woman and forced around 90 rescues, as heavy rain also kept more than 400,000 students out of school in the Valencia region.
A 102-year-old woman died and around 90 people were rescued after a flash flood swept through Madrigueras, a town in Spain’s Albacete province, on Friday evening.
The storm broke shortly after 6 p.m. and dumped about 142 liters of rain per square meter on the town in roughly two hours. Water rose to more than a meter inside the woman’s home, where she drowned, regional officials said. Footage from the town showed cars being carried down streets turned into torrents and piling up against one another.
Emergency services received 108 calls about flooded homes, basements, garages and shops, and carried out most of the rescues in houses cut off by the water. The local health center was also flooded, and its services were moved to the Red Cross headquarters. Councilor María Victoria Leal described the town as "completely flooded."
The Castilla-La Mancha regional government raised its emergency plan for severe weather, METEOCAM, to operational level 1 late on Friday and sent ES-Alert warnings to residents’ phones. Firefighters, the Civil Guard, local police, civil protection teams from neighboring towns and the Red Cross took part in the response. Several regional roads were closed; two reopened overnight.
400,000 students kept home in Valencia
The storms have hit eastern Spain for two days, with up to 200 liters per square meter recorded in parts of the Valencia, Catalonia and Castilla-La Mancha regions. In the Valencian Community, classes were suspended on Friday for nearly 412,000 students, and the state weather agency AEMET kept a red alert in place on the Castellón coast, where close to 146 liters per square meter fell in 12 hours.
About 20 people were rescued from their vehicles in Tarragona and Murcia, some roads were closed and train services were disrupted. Spain’s civil protection agency warned that heavy and persistent showers would continue across the eastern third of the country at least until Sunday. The region remains on edge after the October 2024 floods in Valencia, which killed more than 220 people.
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