Spain floods: Search for missing in Malaga and weather warnings issued
Southern Spain is on high alert following torrential rains that struck the region Saturday night, leaving three people missing and causing widespread flooding around the tourist city of Malaga. The Spanish Civil Guard announced on Sunday that it was intensifying search and rescue efforts and urged residents and tourists to exercise extreme caution and avoid low-lying areas and floodplains.
Details of search and rescue operations
Spanish authorities confirmed in an official statement via the "X" platform that the search continues for the three missing individuals who disappeared as the heavy rains intensified. Initial reports indicate that two of the missing persons disappeared within the city limits of Malaga, while the third went missing in an area near Granada. Videos circulating on social media showed horrific scenes of streets transformed into raging rivers, flooding cars and homes in several villages. This prompted the intervention of emergency teams who began pumping water and clearing mud from the early morning hours to reopen blocked roads.
Spain facing climate change
This event is not isolated from the broader environmental context affecting the continent; Spain is among the European countries most affected by the repercussions of climate change. In recent years, the Iberian Peninsula has experienced an extreme weather pattern, combining record-breaking and prolonged summer heat waves with sudden and violent torrential downpours. Experts link these phenomena to increased greenhouse gas emissions and human activity that has warmed the Mediterranean Sea, making it a source of energy that fuels violent rainstorms.
Ghosts of the October 2024 disaster
These floods have reopened old wounds in the Spanish collective memory, bringing back memories of the devastating floods that struck the country in October 2014, leaving behind a human tragedy that claimed the lives of more than 230 people, mostly in the Valencia region. That disaster was not merely a weather event; it escalated into a political and administrative crisis, sparking widespread public discontent with crisis management mechanisms and triggering a heated debate between the left-wing central government and right-wing local authorities over the distribution of powers and responsibilities—a matter that remains under investigation to determine the shortcomings.
Weather developments
In a related development, the Spanish Meteorological Agency updated its warnings, lowering the alert level in Andalusia from red (extreme danger) to orange, indicating a relative decrease in the intensity of rainfall there. However, the agency warned that the center of the low-pressure system and the heavy rain masses have shifted and are now concentrated along the coast of the Valencia region and the neighboring Murcia region, which also experienced heavy rainfall on Sunday. Emergency services remain on high alert.
