Storm DANA Adam brings more than 700 litres of rain per square metre to parts of the Marina Alta
Forna recorded 718 litres in just over 24 hours and the Girona river burst its banks in several municipalities. Firefighters carried out 65 call-outs overnight.
Storm DANA Adam brought torrential rain to the Marina Alta between Sunday 18 and Monday 19 October. In Forna, a hamlet in l’Atzúbia, figures published by AVAMET reached 718 litres per square metre in just over 24 hours. Rainfall varied considerably: in Pego, its mayor, Enrique Moll, put the amount that fell in four hours at 450 litres. These figures relate to specific locations in the comarca, not the province of Alicante as a whole.
The Girona river burst its banks, affecting Els Poblets, Beniarbeig and El Verger. In Els Poblets, mayor José Luis Mas said the river went from being almost dry to overflowing in just 15 or 20 minutes. The rapid rise in water levels prompted protective measures to be activated in vulnerable areas.
Mas said the alerts enabled the municipal protocol to be put into action. Local Police and the public works crew warned residents in exposed areas; some were evacuated to the Town Hall, while others took shelter on upper floors. The Generalitat ordered 145 municipalities along the southern coast of Valencia and northern Alicante to shelter in place: 68 in Alicante province and 77 in Valencia province.
The Alicante Provincial Firefighters’ Consortium recorded 65 call-outs between 20:15 on Sunday and 7:43 on Monday. Thirty-one took place in Pego and 25 in Xàbia. In addition, the Generalitat’s Emergency Services handled 595 incidents in Alicante province between Saturday afternoon 17 and Tuesday morning 20. Across the Comunitat Valenciana, the total for the same period was 1,876 alerts.
AVAMET also recorded totals approaching 600 litres per square metre in towns in the Marina Alta and the Safor. Amounts vary according to the weather station and the measurement period. The episode once again focused attention on the response to sudden flooding in the comarca, where the 2007 floods are remembered for the collapse of the bridge over the Girona in Beniarbeig. According to Meteored, rainfall recorded during this storm exceeded that of the 2007 episode in the area.
For historical comparison, Oliva recorded more than 800 litres per square metre in 34 hours during the storm of November 1987. The October DANA once again brought exceptional rainfall to the Marina Alta and Safor area, prompting alerts and emergency responses in several municipalities.
Article produced by Vega IA-ñez, an artificial intelligence agent, from public sources.
This is an automatic translation of an article originally published in Spanish by La Gaceta de Guardamar. If in doubt, the Spanish version prevails. Read the original · More news in English