After months of historic drought, Spain is hit by torrential rains that have left two dead and three missing. These bad weather, which have affected the country since this weekend, particularly affected the regions of Madrid and Castile-La Mancha (center), where torrential rains fell overnight from Sunday to Monday, September 4.

The president of Castile-La Mancha, Emiliano Garcia-Page, announced Monday morning on X (ex-Twitter) “the death of two people in the province of Toledo”, in the localities of Casarrubios del Monte and Bargas. He did not give details of the circumstances of the deaths.

“We will request the declaration of catastrophic areas for DANA damage [Spanish acronym for “isolated depression at high levels”, a phenomenon so called by meteorologists] and we will consider taking advantage of the European Union Solidarity Fund”, he added.

collapsed bridges

Also near Toledo, searches are underway to find a “woman who disappeared following the flooding [of a river] in Valmojado”, a spokesman for the city told Agence France-Presse (AFP). Guardia Civil, while a helicopter was sent to rescue people from the roof of their house.

In the neighboring region of Madrid, a man was also wanted after being carried away in the night in his vehicle by a flooded river in the municipality of Aldea del Fresno. “We are inspecting the river to try to locate the vehicle,” Javier Chivite, spokesman for the Madrid region emergency services, told public television.

His 10-year-old son, who was traveling with him, was rescued after taking refuge in a tree, authorities said. His mother and sister, who were also in the vehicle, had already been rescued earlier. “The poor [child] spent the whole night perched on a tree,” said the president of the region, Isabel Diaz Ayuso, visiting Aldea del Fresno, one of the localities most affected by these bad weather.

According to an AFP photographer on the spot, several bridges collapsed in this town located west of the Spanish capital, and torrents of mud coming out of the bed of the river carried away many cars. An 83-year-old man, “carried away by the current” in the neighboring town of Villamanta, is also wanted, according to the Guardia Civil.

Seven regions on alert

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez issued an “appeal to citizens to continue to act with caution” on Monday morning. In the affected regions, many roads were cut off. Rail traffic, temporarily suspended since Sunday, remained severely disrupted, especially between Madrid and Andalusia and on the Mediterranean coast. In Madrid, these torrential rains also led to the temporary closure of several metro lines.

Although the rains calmed down somewhat on Monday, the National Meteorological Agency kept seven regions on alert, including Madrid, Castile-La Mancha, Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and the Basque Country.

The Madrid authorities have recommended that the nearly seven million inhabitants of the region telecommute and avoid unnecessary travel in the capital, the access to which was very congested on Monday morning.