Spain, Portugal face floods and chaos after deadly new storm

Spanish rescuers on Thursday desperately searched for a woman missing after a new storm hit the Iberian peninsula while Portugal warned of a heightened flood risk after several months’ worth of rain fell in a few hours.

One death has already been confirmed in Portugal from the seventh storm to hit the peninsula this year. Portugal has barely recovered from a battering by rain and winds last week that killed five people, injured hundreds and left tens of thousands without power.

Storm Leonardo on Wednesday dumped more than 40 centimetres (15 inches) of rain in some districts of Andalusia in southern Spain, the equivalent of several months of rainfall. Thousands of people were evacuated and roads and rail lines paralysed.

Portuguese officials on Thursday issued their highest flood alert for the Tagus river in the Santarem region.

Authorities in Sanatarem evacuated people from homes near the river. Portugal’s civil protection chief Mario Silvestre said it was the worst flood threat along the Tagus in nearly three decades.

Already on Wednesday, at Alcacer do Sal, south of Lisbon, the Sado river burst its banks and submerged the town centre. Fire brigade divers helped evacuate residents on inflatable boats. The Civil Protection authority told AFP that 89 people were rescued.

Scientists say human-driven climate change is increasing the length, intensity and frequency of extreme weather events such as the floods and heatwaves that have struck the Iberian Peninsula in recent years.

– River search –

Spain’s Civil Guard told AFP they were searching for a woman who had fallen into the Turvilla river in the Sayalonga municipality Wednesday.

Spain’s AEMET national weather agency lowered its warning level for Andalusia, saying it would rain “less intensely” and schools reopened in most of Andalusia but remained suspended in worst hit areas where roads and railways were still out of service.

“It’s unheard of, with a little uncertainty, but whether we like it or not, Mother Nature has to find her place,” Mohamed Amar Mohamed told AFP in the village of Jimera de Libar on Wednesday.

“All we can do is try to adapt and hope for the best,” said the 34-year-old construction worker.

Portugal’s IPMA weather agency IPMA said that last month had been the country’s second-wettest January since 2000.

Train services were suspended in the north and central Portugal. In Lisbon, municipal authorities shut parks and tunnels and suspended several river transport connections faced with the risk of floods and falling trees.

A man in his 60s died in the southeast on Wednesday after being swept away by the current while attempting to drive across a flooded area.

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