Tornado in Ibiza, flashfloods in Catalonia: One dead and four missing

A body washed up on the beach in Caldes d’Estrac, thought to be a 70 year-old man was who swept away in his car by flashfloods in Arenys de Munt.

Meanwhile emergency teams were searching for a mother and son, whose prefab home was swept away by flood waters in Vilaverd, a village some 30 kilometres (20 miles) from the port of Tarragona.

Rescuers were also looking for two people whose car was found in a river near the village of l'Espluga de Francoli in the same area.

Authorities said heavy overnight rainfall in the northeastern region of Catalonia caused power cuts that affected nearly 25,000 people and forced the closure of over 40 roads due to flooding and landslides.

At least three people in San Antonio on Ibiza were injured after a hut on a construction site in which they were sheltering from the storms was ripped off the ground by a tornado.

Strong winds brought torrential rainfall discharging some 130 litres of water per square metre during the ‘gota fria’, a weather phenomenon caused by an upper-level isolated depression known as a DANA in Spain.

The storms uprooted trees causing blockages on several roads across Ibiza and the main road to the airport was closed due to a flood.

During the course of the night the storm moved across the Balearics to the mainland, hitting Valencia region and Castellon province before moving north to Catalonia.

Spain’s weather agency AEMET issued red alerts for several provinces in the northeast region on Wednesday morning.

This map reveals the location of lightening strikes during the storms on Tuesday evening and through the night.

Emergency serivices in Catalonia reported that within a period of eight hours, they had received 2,725 calls during the storms 

 

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