Since records began, Madrid has never been hit by such a deluge. The anniversary station of the State Meteorological Agency (Aemet) in El Retiro, in the center of the capital, had collected 113.5 liters per square meter by half past eleven this Thursday evening, more than exceeding the previous record of 87 on September 21, 1972. “Three of the four rainiest Days in the capital were recorded in the last two years.” Aemet added in a tweet. The cause of such a downpour was Storm Aline, which, due to the persistence and intensity of its rains and winds, was the first named storm of the season and, along with Filomena, which was buried two years ago, will occupy a place in the meteorological history of the capital City under a 25 to 30 centimeter thick layer of snow. Now, in a single day, Aline has drained more than 25% of the water that falls in Madrid in a whole year.
If the warning was red at the time, the maximum, the severity of the storm came as a surprise, as the initial forecasts indicated around 40 liters per square meter and the warning was yellow, the lowest on a scale of three. After exceeding forecasts, Aemet raised it to orange at five in the afternoon in the metropolitan area and in the Corredor del Henares, while the rest of the municipality remained at the minimum level. In addition, there is a yellow warning for wind gusts of 80 kilometers per hour.
Deployment of firefighters on a street in the Community of Madrid, this Thursday. EMERGENCIES MUNICIPALITY OF MADRID
Locally heavy and persistent rains were expected in the Pyrenees, Castile-La Mancha and western Andalusia, but Madrid has finally slipped into the top ten observatories that accumulated the most water during the day, in one unprecedented seventh place, although nowhere near the 133 collected in La Covatilla (Salamanca) and the 122 from Navalvillar de Ibor (Cáceres), which occupy first and second place.
The rain has wreaked havoc on a city little or unaccustomed to water, with four drops breaking down, particularly in communications. Municipal firefighters They performed 168 procedures between 9 a.m. and 8 p.m.Of these, 47 were due to water damage, 35 to rescues, 40 to tree damage and 22 to facade damage. “At the moment the number of warnings is decreasing,” Emergencies Madrid said around 9 a.m.
The accumulated rain has disrupted traffic on some roads such as the M-406 in one direction in the Getafe area; the M-506 in the municipality of Fuenlabrada, the M-50 in both directions at kilometer 31, the M-40 at the Fortuna (Leganés) junction towards the A-4, the A-42 in the area of the Villaverde district, the M- 22 due to flooding in the underpass, the secondary roads of the M-11 (exit to the M-30) and the underpass of the A-2 at Coslada.
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Renfe, in turn, suffered delays on lines C3a, C8, C10 and C4, although it has already resumed services between Atocha and Nuevos Ministerios. In addition, traffic on the high-speed line that runs through Madrid, Zaragoza and Barcelona was disrupted by a failure in the electrification system between the municipalities of Brihuega and Las Inviernas (Guadalajara).
Late in the afternoon, the Metro de Madrid closed the section of Line 5 between Pirámides and Urgell stations in both directions due to water accumulation for an estimated more than four hours. The Banco de España stations and the afternoon closed sections of lines 1 and 7 are now operational.
This was reported by a user on social networks Some travelers stopped at the Marqués de Vadillo train station without any authority informing them of the situation. X user (former Twitter) Tony Aguilar shared images of Alcalá Street, showing the flooded street and train platform. “Next stop: BARCO de España,” said a user of the same social network who shared a video of the water flowing through the mouth of the Bank of Spain subway. Some tweeters have shared videos in which Water shot out of the ground like a geyser on the streets of Goya and Narváez.
At five o’clock in the afternoon, the city council issued a red alert in the parks, which led to the closure of the Retiro and eight other large green spaces in the capital. The traffic jam in the morning and especially in the afternoon was huge. All entrances in Madrid have presented withholdings, in particular at the entrances A-1 in Las Tablas and A-6 in Aravaca and Guadarrama, as well as at the exits A-2 in Torrejón, A-3 in Rivas, A-4 in Pinto and A- 5 in Alcorcón, as reported by the General Directorate of Transport.
Air traffic controllers reported on their social networks that 72.9 liters were collected at the airport that the afternoon became “complicated.”, with detours and delays. Specifically, runway 18R was closed for cleaning work, as was runway 36L due to the weather conditions. Simultaneous parallel starts were also temporarily canceled due to the storm.
Employees of several Madrid Health Service hospitals have reported flooding in several centers – the Infanta Sofía in San Sebastián de los Reyes, the Infanta Leonor de Vallecas, the 12 de Octubre, Ramón y Cajal and La Paz – “many of them were built”. many years ago and without maintenance work,” say the unions, who also speak of leaks and deficiencies in nine health centers – Lucero, Cerro del Aire de Majadahonda, Guayaba, Calesas, San Fermín, Potes, Orcasur, Espronceda and Almendrales―. In addition, employees at the Vaguada shopping center in the Pilar district cordoned off an area because false ceilings collapsed due to water accumulation.
In addition to the brutal amount that fell on the capital, all observatories in the municipality have reached or exceeded 40 liters, including more than 101 in Pozuelo de Alarcón, 93 in San Sebastián de los Reyes and 89 in Rozas de Puerto Real. From 11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., 112 managed 851 files and the municipal fire department carried out 108 operations, in particular puddles of water on public streets, flooding of basements, falling branches and trees, none of them serious.
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