The brutal storms that caused deadly flooding in eastern Spain last week have now dumped water on Barcelona, with flash floods submerging the city’s main airport and closing motorways.
The country’s meteorological service has issued a red alert for rain on the Barcelona coast, warning people not to travel “unless strictly necessary” and to remain alert.
Mobile phones screeched with an alert of “extreme and continuous rain” on the southern outskirts of the city. The alert urged people to avoid normally dry gorges or canals.
Roads have been blocked by landslides and high water, and motorists have been filmed driving through submerged streets as they desperately try to reach safety.
At the airport, shocking videos show water entering parking lots and the main building and gushing from the ceilings, and travelers are seen taking off their shoes and walking through the departure hall.
Spain’s Transport Minister Óscar Puente said airport operator Aena diverted 15 flights that were due to land at El Prat airport this morning due to a storm that hit the area.
Catalonia’s suburban train services have been cancelled, while metro stations and roads have also been closed as authorities try to limit people’s movements and prevent a repeat of last week’s disaster.
A man is seen taking off his shoes and walking through the departure hall at El Prat airport.
Water is seen coming from the roof of El Prat airport, where flights have been diverted by the deluge
Flooding is seen on the runway at Barcelona’s El Prat airport, with flight diversions
An emergency worker is seen walking through flooded waters in Catalonia this morning.
The A-27 highway in Catalonia was covered in mud after a landslide caused by heavy rains
Meanwhile, in Valencia the grim search continues for bodies inside houses and thousands of destroyed cars scattered on the streets, highways and canals that channeled last week’s deluge into populated areas.
Citizens, volunteers and thousands of soldiers and police are helping in the gigantic effort to clean up mud and debris.
Confirmed among the dead today were British couple Terry and Don Turner, aged 74 and 78, who had not been seen since torrential rain hit the Valencia region on Tuesday.
Their daughter Ruth O’Loughlin, from Burntwood, Staffordshire, said her parents’ bodies were found inside their car on Saturday.
The retired expatriates were found in a rural area close to where they lived on the outskirts of the small town of Pedralba, a 45-minute drive northwest of the coastal city of Valencia.
Mayor Andoni León said on Sunday that local volunteers had found their bodies and that of a Spaniard as part of a city council-led attempt to locate the missing, with no outside help anywhere to be seen.
Friends of the couple said Terry had told them they were going out to get gas on Tuesday, their daughter said last week while expressing fears for her parents’ fate.
They later went to check the pensioners’ bungalow, where they lived with their dogs, to see if they had managed to return home before the deadly floods hit.
British expatriate Terry Turner, 74, is among the victims of Tuesday’s floods in Valencia.
Don Turner, 78, had moved to Spain with his wife about 10 years ago.
View of the mud and debris, after the heavy rains that caused flooding, in the La Torre neighborhood of Valencia
A police officer inspects the inside of piled-up vehicles for victims following Saturday’s flooding.
Satellite image shows severe flooding in Valencia on October 30 after heavy rain
“The friends had gone there because they hadn’t heard from mom and dad, the key was in the door, they could get into the property, the dogs were there and the car was gone, so they know mom and dad haven’t been there “. “he said last week.
Ms O’Loughlin previously told the bbc that his parents had moved to Spain about 10 years ago because “they had always wanted to live in the sun.”
They were popular in their community and had “lovely friends around them” but had been considering returning to the UK as they were growing up.
O’Loughlin said she last spoke to her mother on Monday, the day before the floods hit, and said she had been “complaining about the rain.”
‘She said they wanted to do work on the house so they could put it up for sale but it’s raining a lot.
“We talked about mom and dad coming here next year to spend some time with us and we just ended the call and I’m so glad I said ‘I love you’ and she said she loves me too.”
When news of the horrific flooding emerged the next day, O’Loughlin said she desperately tried to contact her mother and father, but never heard from them again.
Rescuers continue searching for survivors for fear that underwater car parks will become “mass graves”
Cars piled up in a ditch at a construction site after being swept off the road by heavy flooding
Their deaths bring to three the number of Britons confirmed dead in the tragedy, with a 71-year-old man losing his life after being rescued from floods in Malaga.
The British man was rescued by boat last Tuesday by firefighters after his partner alerted the authorities because he was suffering an apparent heart attack and was suffering from hypothermia.
He was taken to nearby Guadalhorce Hospital and stabilized before being transferred to a hospital in Malaga, where he died in the early hours of Wednesday morning after suffering multiple organ failure.
The death of at least 217 people has been confirmed in the disaster, which constitutes the deadliest natural tragedy in memory in Spain.
Rescuers continue their grim search for cars and underground garages, where it is feared dozens more bodies could still be found.
Almost all of the deaths have occurred in the Valencia region, where thousands of security and emergency services frantically cleared debris and mud in search of bodies.
The President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, has said that it is the second deadliest flood in Europe this century.