A persistent snowstorm covered large areas of Spain on Saturday with an unusual amount of snow, killing at least four people and leaving thousands trapped in cars or at train stations and airports that suspended all services.
The national weather agency reported that as of 7 a.m., snowfall in Madrid had reached a level not seen in half a century. More than 20 centimeters of snow fell in the Spanish capital, according to the weather agency AEMET.
The bodies of a man and a woman were recovered by the Andalusian region’s emergency service after their car was swept away by a flooded river near the town of Fuengirola. The Interior Ministry said a 54-year-old man was also found dead in Madrid under a large pile of snow. A homeless man died of hypothermia in the northern city of Zaragoza, the local police department said.
More than half of the Spanish provinces remained on severe weather alerts for Hurricane Filomena on Saturday evening, seven of them with the highest alert level. In Madrid, authorities have activated a red alert for the first time since the system was adopted four decades ago and called on the army to rescue people from vehicles trapped in everything from small roads to major roads in the country. city.
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Sandra Morena, who was trapped late Friday while traveling on her night shift as a security guard at a mall, arrived home on foot after an army emergency unit helped her on Saturday. morning.
“It usually takes 15 minutes, but this time I’ve been freezing for 12 hours, with no food or water, crying with other people because we didn’t know how we would get out of there,” Morena, 22, said.
“Snow can be very nice, but spending the night stuck in a car because it’s not fun,” he added.
As of Saturday evening, Spanish security services had rescued all the people trapped in vehicles, more than 1,500, said Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska.
AEMET had warned that some regions would receive more than 24 hours of continuous snowfall due to the strange combination of a stagnant cold air mass in the Iberian Peninsula and the arrival of the warmest storm Filomena from the south.
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The storm is expected to be followed by a sharp drop in temperatures in the coming days, according to the agency.
The Minister of Transport, José Luis Ábalos, warned that “the snow will turn to ice and we will enter a situation that is perhaps more dangerous than the one we currently have”.
He added that the priority was to help those who needed it, but also to ensure the supply chain of food and other commodities.
“The storm has surpassed the most pessimistic forecasts we had,” Ábalos added.
Madrid-Barajas Adolfo Suárez International Airport, Spain’s main entry and exit gate, will remain closed at least until Sunday, Ábalos said, after the snowstorm overtook the machines and workers trying to keep the runways free of snow.
All entry and exit trains in Madrid, both commuter routes and long-distance passenger trains, as well as railway lines between the south and northeast of the country, were suspended, the operator said. Renfe.
According to Spanish traffic authorities, the storm had caused serious disturbances or closed more than 650 roads, urging people to stay inside and avoid all non-essential travel.
More than 100 roads were still impassable almost 24 hours after the storm began pouring snow into the central part of the country.
The Spanish government plans to take additional steps to ensure the country’s weekly shipment of the BioNTech-Pfizer coronavirus vaccine can be distributed to regional health authorities through convoys escorted by police, the interior minister said.
The winter weather disrupted the country’s football league, with some teams unable to travel to play matches. Saturday’s match between the leader of the Spanish league, Atletico Madrid and Athletic Bilbao, was postponed after the plane carrying the Bilbao team on Friday could not land in the capital and had to turn around.
The regions of Castilla la Mancha and Madrid, where a total of 8.6 million people live, announced that schools would close at least on Monday and Tuesday.
Despite the numerous branches and even entire trees torn down by the weight of the snow, the snowstorm also produced surreal images that entertained many Madrid residents, including some brave skiers and a man on a dog sled that was seen to videos widely circulated on social media.
Lucía Vallés, coach of a ski club based in Madrid who normally has to travel to distant mountains with her clients, was thrilled to see how layers of snow white literally piled up on the doorstep of her home.
“I never imagined it, it’s been a gift,” the 23-year-old said. “But I’ve never been photographed so much,” he added as he passed the late 18th-century building that houses the Prado Museum.