Blizzard sparks rare red alert
A persistent blizzard blanketed large parts of Spain with an unusual amount of snow yesterday, 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 7am local time, the snowfall in Madrid reached a level unseen in half a century. More than 50cm of snow fell in the Spanish capital, according to the weather agency AEMET.
The bodies of a man and woman were recovered by the Andalucia region emergency service after their car was washed 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 big pile of snow.
A homeless man died of
hypothermia in the northern city of Zaragoza, the local police department reported.
More than half of Spain’s provinces remained under severe
weather alerts for Storm Filomena on Saturday evening, local time, seven of them at the highest level of warning.
In Madrid, authorities activated a red alert for the first time since the system was adopted four decades ago and called in the military to rescue people from vehicles trapped on everything from small roads to the city’s major thoroughfares.
Sandra Morena, who became trapped late on Saturday as she commuted to her night shift as a security guard in a shopping centre, arrived home, on foot, after an army emergency unit helped her out.
‘‘It usually takes me 15 minutes, but this time it has been 12 hours freezing, without food or water, crying with other people because we didn’t know how we were going to get out of there,’’ said Morena, 22.
‘‘Snow can be very beautiful but spending the night trapped in a car because of it is no fun,’’ she added.
As of Saturday evening, local time, Spanish security services had rescued all the people who were trapped in vehicles — more than 1500, Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska said.
AEMET had warned that some regions would be receiving more than 24 hours of continuous snowfall due to the odd combination of a cold air mass stagnant over the Iberian Peninsula and the arrival of the warmer Storm Filomena from the south.
The storm is expected to be followed by a severe drop in temperatures in the coming days, the agency said.
Transport Minster Jose Luis Abalos warned that ‘‘snow is going to turn into ice and we will enter a situation perhaps more dangerous than what we have at the moment.’’
He added that the priority was to assist those in need but also to ensure the supply chain for food and other basic goods.
‘‘The storm has exceeded the most pessimistic forecasts we had,’’ Abalos added.