A ‘storm train’ of consecutive winds and rains battering Spain and Portugal has already forced 11,000 people to flee their homes.
A man, believed to be about 70, died in Portugal‘s southern Alentejo region on Wednesday after his car was swept away by flood water, local authorities said.
And on Friday, police said a body was found not far from where a woman was swept away by a river in Malaga, as she tried to rescue her dog.
Storm Leonardo struck the Iberian Peninsula on Tuesday – with Spanish state weather agency AEMET warning that another storm, Marta, is on its way, due to hit the region with rain and snow on Saturday.
Thousands are now being forced to evacuate amid fears of more flooding, while nearly 170 roads have been closed across Spain and Portuguese rail services have been disrupted.
Areas near the Guadalquivir River in Cordoba, Spain, have been evacuated overnight due to the dramatic rise in water levels.
Andalusia’s regional leader, Juan Manuel Moreno, told a press conference that they expect 30mm of rainwater on Saturday.
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He said: “In other circumstances that would be little water but right now it is a lot as the soil is unable to drain and the rivers and reservoirs are full.”
Spanish farmers warned that the torrential rain had left fields submerged, which already caused millions of euros worth of damage to crops.
Portugal’s agriculture ministry also said that preliminary estimates put losses due to the storms at around £650m (750 million euros).
“It is raining without stopping,” Miguel Angel Perez, of the farmers organisation COAG in Andalusia’s Cadiz province, told Spanish television TVE on Saturday.
“Crops like broccoli, carrots and cauliflowers are under water. Thousands of hectares inundated. We have a real natural catastrophe.”
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Meanwhile, in the mountainous Spanish village of Grazalema, 1,500 residents were evacuated as water seeped through walls.
Worse still, the mountains are made of a permeable rock that dissolves if they absorb too much water – potentially leading to their structural collapse.
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In the Portuguese town of Alcacer do Sal, residents told how they had to flee with nothing but the clothes on their backs.
“I’m left with nothing,” one told Reuters. “Nothing.”
Portuguese Prime Minister Luis Montenegro said late on Thursday his government had extended a state of calamity in 69 municipalities until mid-February, adding “unprecedented” rainfall and flood risks threatened several regions.
The commander of Portugal’s ANEPC civil protection service, Mario Silvestre, said there were six rivers at risk of major flooding.
The Tagus river basin was placed on red alert on Thursday due to the abrupt rise in water flow.
