Firefighters respond to 99 incidents overnight as heavy rain batters Catalonia

Catalan firefighters responded to 99 incidents between 9pm on Wednesday and 7am on Thursday as powerful storms swept across Catalonia during the night.

Most of the incidents involved fallen trees and localized flooding.

In total – including calls earlier on Wednesday – emergency services logged 258 incidents over the course of the storm.

The highest number came from the Northern Metropolitan region (127), followed by the Central and Southern Metropolitan regions (44 each), Girona (20), Tarragona (12), and Lleida (11).

There were 500 calls to the 112 emergency number by 10am on Thursday with the bulk coming from Vallès Occidental (109), Barcelonès (61), and Vallès Oriental areas (57).

Among individual municipalities, Terrassa saw the most calls (69), followed by Cubelles (38) and Barcelona (36).

Reservoir overflows

The Foix reservoir exceeded its overflow threshold overnight, prompting a warning from the Catalan Water Agency (ACA) for potential flooding in low-lying areas of Castellet i la Gornal (Alt Penedès) and Cubelles (Garraf). No significant incidents were reported.

During the morning, water flow started to decline, although ACA urged the public to exercise caution – advising people to stay away from the river and avoid crossing low-lying areas or fords. Police were deployed to monitor the situation and enforce safety measures, including closing certain roads.

In anticipation of the storm, ACA began releasing water from the reservoir on Tuesday.

Just two weeks ago, the Foix River overflowed in Cubelles, causing significant property damage.