Madrid Residents Urged To Stay Indoors As DANA Creates Historic ‘Exceptional And Anomalous Situation’

MADRID City Council has urged residents of the capital to stay indoors this Sunday, September 3, and to not venture outside unless it is absolutely necessary.

‘Given the red notice issued by @AEMET_Madrid, which foresees rainfall that they can become torrential, we ask citizens to remain in their homes and not go out unless strictly necessary’, they wrote in a tweet.

🔴🔴Ante el aviso rojo emitido por@AEMET_Madrid,
que prevé #lluvias que pueden llegar a ser torrenciales, pedimos a los ciudadanos que permanezcan en sus domicilios y no salgan salvo que sea estrictamente necesario https://t.co/acxFsyTGSg

— Ayuntamiento Madrid (@MADRID) September 3, 2023

José Luis Martínez Almeida, the mayor of Madrid, warned: ‘It is an exceptional and anomalous situation, the historical record of rainfall in the city is going to be broken, which dates back to 1972 when 87 litres per square metre was recorded’.

He indicated that the weather experts were predicting that accumulations of 120 l/m² could be exceeded.

AEMET, the State Meteorological Agency, had already issued a red weather alert for the centre and southeast of the country due to the DANA conditions currently wreaking havoc across most of Spain.

Empieza a tronar y la lluvia intensa ⛈ La #DANA está dejando ya lluvias intensas en muchas zonas y esta tarde podrían ser especialmente fuertes en el centro del país.

🔴 Se mantienen los avisos de nivel rojo en la Comunidad de Madrid y Toledo y se ha activado también en la… pic.twitter.com/XB048A3qkb

— Eltiempo.es (@ElTiempoes) September 3, 2023

The city official also assured that work has been underway since Friday to prevent the consequences of the current DANA. ‘Intense work has been done in the last 24 hours to alleviate the effects of yesterday’s rains and we have adopted measures to guarantee the safety of the residents of Madrid’, he explained.

Among those measures was the closure of all municipal facilities such as sports centres and cultural centres. The majority of road tunnels were also closed, with the exception of those on the M-30. Reinforcements were added to the emergency services, including Samur, the Fire Brigade, and the Municipal Police.

ℹ️ Actualizamos situación de túneles urbanos: pic.twitter.com/lcsT9JiUXq

— Centro de Gestión de la Movilidad de Madrid (@cgm_madrid) September 3, 2023

The main objective of these measures is to guarantee that security and emergency services professionals can travel on the city’s roads and maintain and preserve the safety of Madrid’s citizens.

Almeida insisted: ‘The best guarantee is not to go out on the street, to minimise travel. It is an anomalous and exceptional situation, we all have the memory of Filomena. It is going to be historic, without a doubt’, reported 20minutos.es.

The mayor asked motorists to take care on the roads

In statements to Canal 24 Horas, the mayor explained that the red alert had been established until midnight, but that it could be extended until 2 am on Monday. For this reason, he asked motorists travelling to Madrid to take extra special care during their journeys.

The DANA has arrived just as people are making their way home after the summer holidays. Almeida’s message was clear: ‘Drivers must be especially careful, especially those coming from the south’. He pointed out that it will be very ‘difficult and complicated’ on the roads.

‘You should not take any type of additional risk, you have to be calm and patient, and the important thing is to get there’ he stressed.

Civil Protection has recommended that people who plan to return from their vacations should try to leave earlier where possible, to avoid being on the road at the worst time of the storm.