The Spanish region of Catalonia is being hit this Thursday, February 12, by an “episode of exceptional wind” that has already caused 86 injuries, five of them seriously, local authorities said.
The wind, with gusts reaching more than 160 kilometers per hour in some areas, led to the closure of schools in the region as a precaution, several companies also decided to close and public health services reduced activity to urgent needs and requests.
There are still roads with limited or closed traffic, as well as reduced activity in ports, train disruptions and more than 100 flights have already been canceled not Barcelona airport.
The wind uprooted and broke trees, street lighting, roofs and other structures and tore down walls and walls.
According to the most recent assessment of civil protection in Catalonia, in northeast Spain, “86 people needed health care and 34 of them were taken to health units.”
The Health department of the autonomous government (Generalitat of Catalonia) specified that nine people needed to be treated in hospitals and one of them is in critical condition, another in a very serious condition and three more in serious conditionafter being hit by uprooted trees and street lighting posts, by a wall that collapsed and by the roof of an industrial unit that fell.
The Catalan 112 emergency service said that due to the “wind episode” it has already received more than 4,500 calls and that it is in the Barcelona area, the capital of Catalonia and the second largest city in Spain, that the most incidents have been recorded.
“These are very strong gusts of wind, with exceptional virulence. It’s an extraordinary episode”said the head of civil protection at the Generalitat, Núria Parlon, speaking to local radio Rac 1.
On Wednesday night, Catalan civil protection had already issued a statement with warning and recommendations due to an “exceptional wind episode” predicted for today, associated with storm Nils.
The Catalan authorities also sent alerts to the population’s cell phones and asked that movement in the region be limited.
The Spanish meteorological services forecast that the wind will lose intensity this afternoon.
Storm Nils is the eighth to hit the Iberian Peninsula since the beginning of this year.
The Spanish meteorological agency (Aemet) also placed the coast of the Basque Country (in northeastern Spain) on red warning due to strong winds and sea agitation, predicting waves of ten meters.
The bad weather of recent weeks in the Iberian Peninsula, with successive storms hitting Portugal and Spain, has caused winds, intense rain and flooding in several regions of both countries.
In Portugal, 16 people died and in Spain one died following the passage of depressions Kristin, Leonardo and Marta in recent weeks, which also caused hundreds of injuries and displacement.
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