Climate News
Storm after storm: Leonardo and Marta flood Spain and Portugal as Morocco evacuates 154,000
A run of Atlantic storms has battered the Iberian Peninsula and northern Morocco since late January. Euronews reported that Storm Leonardo hit on 4 February, a week after Storm Kristin killed at least five people in Portugal. A man in his 60s was swept away near Serpa in Portugal, and Spain's weather agency AEMET put parts of Andalusia on its highest red alert after Grazalema recorded more than 40cm of rain in 24 hours. Andalusian schools closed and almost all trains were cancelled.
Storm Marta followed at the weekend. Euronews reported on 8 February that a 46-year-old emergency worker drowned at Campo Maior in Portugal and a snow-plough driver died in Ávila, Spain. Three Portuguese municipalities postponed Sunday's presidential vote by a week. EWN, carrying AFP, said more than 10,000 people had been evacuated in Andalusia and that Portugal's prime minister Luís Montenegro put the damage above €4bn.
"The rivers have hit their limit." — Juan Manuel Moreno, president of Andalusia, via EWN
Across the strait, The New Arab reported 154,309 people evacuated from four Moroccan provinces, most of them in Larache, where officials said up to 85% of Ksar El Kebir was emptied. The Oued Al Makhazine dam was about 46% above capacity. Authorities reported no deaths.
How each outlet framed it
- Euronews — the European emergency: deaths, red alerts, closed schools and cancelled trains.
- EWN — the South African site, via AFP, put Spain, Portugal and Morocco in one story, with Spain's prime minister "bowled over at seeing the endless rain".
- The New Arab — Morocco province by province, and the overfilled dams behind the flooding.
- Africanews — aerial images of Ksar El Kebir under water and rooftop rescues by small boat.
Where the numbers differ: Africanews put Morocco's displaced at more than 140,000 on 6 February; The New Arab's later update gave 154,309. The New Arab also noted that the rains ended a seven-year drought.