Catalan regional government justifies lack of precautionary warning ahead of rain that claimed one life

"These are weather systems that do not behave predictably. We would not send out an Es-alert simply to say that it is raining heavily," regional minister of the interior Núria Parlon said on Thursday.

The regional government issued a warning for the Barcelona and Maresme areas at 9.12pm, when the accumulation of rainfall raised the risk level to six out of six.

According to Parlon, they didn't issue a precautionary measure earlier because the initial weather forecast had indicated a risk of four out of six.

On Thursday, firefighters recovered the body of a 48-year-old driver who the water had swept away the previous night as he was trying to cross the Olivella stream.

The incident led to more than 400 emergency calls from residents to the firefighting service.

Heavy rain forced the evacuation of 250 people from a campsite in Sitges (Barcelona) and caused major disruption on several roads, particularly the Ronda de Dalt in Barcelona (B20) and the B15.

The downpour also caused flooding in the lower levels of the Vall d’Hebron hospital, forcing changes to some of the hospital's services.

A total of 48 local councils in the area activated their emergency plans on Wednesday afternoon due to the forecast of heavy rain.

Parlon defended the decision not to issue a preventative Es-alert warning as they did last week in response to a similar incident in the Barcelona area, which led to the suspension of classes in Baix Llobregat.

"The Es-Alert wasn't late. We won't bring the country to a standstill just to say it's raining heavily," Parlon said.

She referred to the Barça vs Racing league football match, which took place at the Camp Nou at 7pm on Wednesday in heavy rain. "If we'd sent out the alert at 7pm and called off the Barça match, people wouldn't have understood," she stated. "We cannot treat a tool that serves a specific purpose lightly."

Director of emergencies Sergi Delgado explained that the Catalan regional government was "in constant contact" with Barça officials to discuss the possibility of delaying the departure of spectators from the Camp Nou, a decision which they ultimately did not implement.

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