Flash floods leave woman dead, numerous homes evacuated and drivers trapped in their cars

TORRENTIAL rain, temperatures dropping to freezing and flash floods in the east of Spain have caused havoc over the last three days and already claimed one life after a woman's car became trapped in gushing water in the province of Barcelona.

She disappeared on Saturday night in Sant Llorenç d'Hortons, and her body was found on Monday in the river Anoia through Martorell.

The victim, 20, who has not been identified but is said to have lived in Sant Joan Despi, was attempting to cross a ford near the Can Ferraguet caravan park where she had been on her way to a birthday party after her in-car GPS sat-nav system led her to the stream in error.

A 19-year-old man travelling with her managed to get out of the car and clung onto the branches of an overhanging tree to save himself, but the young woman was washed away by the current when she tried to climb out of the vehicle.

The bumper of her car was found first, late on Saturday, eventually leading the search party (photograph to the right, taken by the Mossos d'Esquadra) to her body 48 hours later.

In Molina de Segura (Murcia) and Sagunto (Valencia province), a man and a woman respectively became trapped in their cars, but were eventually rescued alive.

Tunnels and streets were two feet deep in water in Valencia, and aircraft took much longer to land than usual at Valencia and Barcelona airports, causing flight delays.

A spectacular tornado was spotted out to sea between Sueca and Cullera (Valencia province), the most clearly-defined one seen in the last decade.

Some 500 calls were made to emergency services in just six hours on Sunday afternoon, mostly from the Camp de Morvedre district to the north of Valencia city.

Temperatures fell to a highly-uncharacteristic 0ºC in the regions of Valencia, Murcia, Catalunya and the Balearic Islands yesterday (Monday).

Flash floods have created catastrophic situations in the south of the mainland, too – in Vejer de la Frontera (Cádiz province), hundreds of residents have become trapped in their homes and even the emergency services could not get to them.

Elsewhere in the province of Cádiz, damage caused to numerous homes, leaving them uninhabitable, has forced their occupants out and Conil council has set up an emergency camp in its sports centre.

Roads have been shut all over the south and east of Spain, especially in Valencia and the province of Cádiz.

Throughout the country, farm crops were destroyed by floods and chickens were killed.