Classes were cancelled in more than 30 municipalities due to heavy rains on Tuesday, mainly in the areas of Murcia, Almería and Alicante. 

The Emergency Coordination Centre of the Region of Murcia attended a total of 117 incidents related to the rains in the early hours of Tuesday morning, mostly in the Mazarrón and the Campo de Cartagena areas. These included flash flooding and rescues of people trapped in vehicles.

Cartagena and Mazarrón have been on red alert since four in the morning with a forecast of “extreme risk of accumulated precipitation in one hour of up to 61 mm”.

At 5:30am Tuesday morning, the General Directorate of Emergencies of the Autonomous Community activated level 0 of the Special Civil Protection Plan against the Risk of Floods for the entire region of Murcia. 

The local police in Murcia have closed seven streets to traffic due to the presence of water bags and the risk to the population, while in the town of Lorca, municipal nurseries, offices and street services have been closed.

The conditions also forced the interruption of train services between Cartagena and Murcia from 5:09am to 9.15am on Tuesday morning and the Hospital de Rosell in Cartagena was flooded. 

The president of the regional government, Fernando López Miras, already announced on Monday night that teaching activity in universities and all educational centers in 14 municipalities would be suspended. 

Valencia also suspends classes

Classes have also been cancelled in all educational centers in a total of 21 municipalities in the Valencia region, mostly in the province of Alicante. The State Meteorological Agency (AEMET) has predicted episodes of intense rain with peaks of 40 litres per square metre in just one hour.

There have also been several road closures across Alicante province due to trapped cars, flooding and rubble blocking the highways. 

Alicante ahora pic.twitter.com/FTlbxiYUpP

— Lidia_survival (@ilipon77) May 23, 2023

The municipalities of Elche, Torrevieja and Orihuela have closed schools this Tuesday due to an orange alert for strong gusts of wind, heavy rain and adverse meteorological conditions, determined by the Emergency Coordination Centre of the Valencian Generalitat.

Almost 400,000 inhabitants have been affected by the closures, which have also included municipal sports facilities, public parks and gardens.

A record figure for the month of May, which hasn’t been seen in a hundred years, was recorded in Ontinyent with 127.4 litres of rain per square metre falling in the last twelve hours.

El cabal del Riu Clariano a Ontinyent puja sense parar.

Fins a les 8 h, els registres s'acosten als 140 l/m² al sud del terme i continua diluviant. Desconeixem l'autir del vídeo. pic.twitter.com/aTpODxgf0u

— AVAMET (@avamet) May 23, 2023

Regions on alert

AEMET continues to predict a significant risk from rain and storms for this Wednesday May 24th with accumulated precipitation of up to 80 litres per square meter in 12 hours, keeping parts of Andalusia and Murcia on alert.

Andalusia, Murcia and Valencia have been put on orange alert due to rains and storms, while in the central and northern parts of the country, Aragón, Castilla-La Mancha and Catalonia have been put on yellow.

Occasional rains, showers and even hail have been predicted for these regions. In the rest of the Peninsula and the Balearic Islands, scattered showers and storms are forecast in general, which will be particularly strong in areas of northern Aragón and Catalonia.