Brutal storms that caused deadly flooding in eastern Spain last week have now dumped water on Barcelona, with flash floods inundating the city’s main airport and closing highways.
The country’s weather service has issued a red warning for rain, warning people not to travel “unless strictly necessary” and to remain alert.
Mobile phones in Barcelona beeped with a warning of ‘extreme and persistent rainfall’ on the southern edge of the city. The warning urged people to avoid normally dry gorges or canals.
Roads have been blocked by mudslides and high tides, and motorists have been filmed driving through flooded streets as they desperately try to reach safety.
At the airport, shocking videos have shown water flooding into the car parks and main building and pouring from the ceilings as travelers take off their shoes and wade through the departure lounge.
Spanish Transport Minister Oscar Puente said airport operator Aena diverted 15 flights scheduled to land at El Prat airport this morning due to a rainstorm that hit the area.
Catalonia’s suburban train services have been cancelled, while metro stations and roads have also been closed as authorities try to restrict people’s movements and prevent a repeat of last week’s disaster.
A man is seen taking off his shoes and wading through the departure lounge of El Prat airport
Water flows from the ceiling of El Prat airport, where flights have been diverted due to the deluge
Flooding is seen on the runway of Barcelona’s El Prat Airport, with flights being diverted
An aid worker wades through the water in Catalonia this morning
The A-27 motorway in Catalonia was covered in mud after a landslide caused by heavy rain
Meanwhile, in Valencia, the grim search continues for bodies in homes and thousands of wrecked cars scattered in the streets, on highways and in canals that channeled last week’s deluge into populated areas.
Citizens, volunteers and thousands of soldiers and police are helping with the massive clearing of mud and debris.
British couple Terry and Don Turner, aged 74 and 78, who had not been seen since torrential rain hit the Valencia region on Tuesday, were said to be among the dead today.
Their daughter Ruth O’Loughlin, from Burntwood, Staffordshire, said her parents’ bodies were found in their car on Saturday.
The retired ex-pats were found in a rural area near where they lived, on the outskirts of the small town of Pedralba, a 45-minute drive northwest of the coastal city of Valencia.
Mayor Andoni Leon said on Sunday that local volunteers had found their bodies and that of a Spanish man themselves as part of a city hall-led effort to locate the missing – with no outside help in sight.
Friends of the couple said Terry told them they were “going out” on Tuesday to get some gas, their daughter said last week as she expressed her fears about her parents’ fate.
They later went to check the pensioners’ bungalow, where they lived with their dogs, to see if they had managed to get home before the deadly floods reached their land.
British ex-pat Terry Turner, 74, is among the victims of Tuesday’s floods in Valencia
Don Turner, 78, had moved to Spain with his wife about a decade ago
A view of mud and debris, after heavy rain causing flooding, in the La Torre district of Valencia
A police officer checking the inside stacked vehicles to victims on Saturday
Satellite photo shows severe flooding in Valencia on October 30 after heavy rain
‘Friends had been sniffing around there because they hadn’t heard from mum and dad, the key was in the door, they were able to get into the property, the dogs were there and the car is gone, so they know mum and dad haven’t come back’ , she said last week.
Ms O’Loughlin previously told the newspaper BBC that her parents had moved to Spain about ten years ago because they ‘always wanted to live in the sun’.
They were popular in their community and had ‘nice friends around them’, but as they got older they considered moving back to Britain.
Mrs O’Loughlin said she last spoke to her mother on Monday, the day before the floods hit, and said she had ‘complained about the rain’.
‘She said they wanted to do some work on the house so they could put it up for sale, but it rains a lot.
“We were talking about mom and dad coming over here next year to spend some time with us and we just ended the conversation and I’m really glad I said ‘I love you’ and she said she did too loves me.’
When news of the horrific flooding emerged the next day, Mrs O’Loughlin said he desperately tried to reach her mother and father but never heard from them again.
Their deaths bring to three the number of confirmed British deaths in the tragedy, which saw a 71-year-old man lose his life after being rescued from floods in Malaga.
The British man was rescued by boat by firefighters last Tuesday after his partner alerted authorities as he suffered an apparent heart attack and was suffering from hypothermia.
He was taken to the nearby Guadalhorce Hospital and stabilized before being transferred to a hospital in Malaga, where he died early on Wednesday morning after multiple organ failure.
At least 217 people have been confirmed dead in the disaster, which amounts to Spain’s deadliest natural disaster in living memory.
Rescuers continue their grim search for cars and underground garages where it is feared dozens more bodies could be found.
Nearly all the deaths occurred in the Valencia region, where thousands of security and emergency services frantically cleared rubble and mud in search of bodies.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has said it was the second deadliest flood in Europe this century.