One person is severely injured and 17 others have minor injuries due to torrential rain in southern Catalonia

The Catalan health emergency system treated 18 people, one severely injured and 17 others with minor injuries, due to torrential rain recorded during the last hours across the Terres de l'Ebre counties, in southern Catalonia.

Oriol Corbella, head of the firefighters' unit deployed on site, said no victim has been reported despite recording very "dangerous" episodes.

Firefighters responded to 340 emergency warnings between 5:30 pm on Sunday and 7 am on Monday. Two-thirds of them, 284 warnings, were in Montsià county, and 55 were registered in Baix Ebre county.

Until Monday morning, the emergency units had to do 31 rescues, most of them of people trapped in cars on roads, streets, or even precipices.

The 112 emergency hotline received 2,093 phone calls since the torrential rain started.

The majority of phone calls were made from Montsià, 73%, the most affected by the torrential rains, followed by the Baix Ebre, and the Baix Camp.

The most severely injured person fell down and broke his hip. Emergency services transferred the person to the Vinaròs Hospital.

Corbella explained that it had been a very long night due to the "simultaneity" of several emergencies, which reduced as the rain stopped. Many firefighters are now moving towed cars from streets, or studying how the rains affected different buildings and infrastructure, such as bridges.

Experts predict more torrential rains in the later hours of Monday, so they will "follow the weather forecast" to see if Sunday's events repeat.

'It's not over'

The Catalan president, Salvador Illa, warned that the torrential rain "is not over," and called residents to be prudent based on the weather forecast.

Speaking from Tortosa, in southern Catalonia, Illa said that the weather forecasts point to new torrential rain episodes during the later hours of the day.

Forecasts "cannot expect where or when the rain will impact," Illa told media outlets from the emergency control center.

The emergency services committee will meet at 1 pm to study the situation.

The president said that emergency units are worried about the Ebre and Baix Camp areas, as there is a lot of water from previous rains.

Experts will study whether the current measures will be enforced on Tuesday, although he said Monday is "not a day to move around."

No schools and working from home

On Sunday night, authorities announced that schools would not open in southern Catalonia as the severe weather would continue after a full weekend of heavy rain.

Schoolchildren are to remain home in the four counties of the Ebre river delta region –Terra Alta, Baix Ebre, Ribera d'Ebre and Montsià–, with medium-sized cities such as Tortosa and Amposta, as well as Baix Camp, by the coast near Tarragona, with Reus as capital city.

The measure affects around 50,000 students from 238 schools.

Also, Civil Protection authorities advise the public to also work from home and stay indoors on Monday in the same area.

Flood alert in southern Catalonia was issued on Saturday, originally lasting until Sunday morning, but in the end remaining all day long. And, on Sunday evening, authorities decided to raise the level of alarm to 'emergency' after sending two alerts to phones in the Montsià county, at the beginning, and all southern coast a while later.