A man has died and a girl is missing after heaving flooding hit Spain and Portugal.
Storm Leonardo struck the Iberian Peninsula on Tuesday, with torrential rain and strong winds causing roads and towns to flood, damaging homes and forcing residents to flee.
A man, believed to be about 70, died in Portugal‘s southern Alentejo region on Wednesday after his car was swept away by flood water, local authorities said.
Meanwhile, rescuers have been searching for a girl who was washed away in the Turvilla river in southern Spain‘s Malaga province while trying to rescue her dog.
“We spent the whole afternoon and night yesterday searching in the river from the place where the girl fell in until the very end of the river. We found the dog, but not her,” Malaga fire chief Manuel Marmolejo said on Spanish television.
The countries have been hit by a so-called “storm train” this winter, with Storm Marta expected to hit the region over the weekend, Spanish weather agency Aemet said.
In the Granada region in Spain, the streets of Huetor Tajar were flooded, along with nearby fields, after a river broke its banks, drone footage captured by the country’s Civil Guard shows.
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The town of San Roque in Cádiz in Spain’s Andalusia region was also inundated by flood water.
Andalusia’s emergency services had attended to more than a million incidents by midnight on Wednesday, the agency said in a post on X.
Fourteen rivers and 10 dams were at “extreme” risk of overflowing, the regional government’s interior department’s head Antonio Sanz said.
Schools across Andalucia, except for in Almeria province, have been closed and some high-speed trains have been suspended in Andalucía due to the rain, according to Spain’s state-owned railway operator, Renfe.
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Meanwhile, people waded waist-deep through Alcacer do Sal in southern Portugal after successive storms caused the river Sado to breach its banks.
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Restaurant terraces were completely submerged, with sandbags stacked in front of doors to protect homes and shops.
“I’ve never seen anything like this. It’s surreal,” said resident Maria Cadacha.
“There are a lot of people here, very good people, many shopkeepers, homes with damage. I wouldn’t want to be in their shoes.”
Portugal’s National Civil Protection said it had registered at least 70 incidents by Thursday morning.
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Reconstruction costs in Portugal after last week’s Storm Kristin alone could total over €4bn (£3.47bn), the country’s economy minister Manuel Castro Almeida said.
Storm Kristin left six people dead and thousands without power.
