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A couple had a miraculous escape in the early hours of Tuesday December 16 when their car was swept away by raging waters in Águilas' rambla del Cocón just seconds after firefighters pulled them to safety. Around 7am, as heavy rains battered the Region of Murcia, Guardia Civil, Policia Civil and emergency crews rushed to rescue the two people trapped inside their vehicle.

 

"The professionals' swift and effective action prevented a fatal outcome," assured rescuers, as they worked against the torrent.

 

The drama unfolded amid Storm Emilia's sudden morning onslaught, catching many off guard with intense downpours that dumped up to 26 litres in six hours in Águilas' Minglano-Cañarete area and 14.80 litres in Cope-Águilas. A yellow alert for heavy rain had been in place across Campo de Cartagena, Mazarrón, Guadalentín Valley, Lorca and Águilas, forecasting up to 15 litres per square metre per hour until 10am. But the storm peaked right at rush hour around 9am, as parents dropped children at school and commuters hit the roads.

 

Widespread chaos followed in places like Molina de Segura, where garages and ground-floor homes flooded rapidly. Firefighters from the CEIS consortium pumped out water from houses using sump pumps, while blocked sewers overflowed, sending manhole covers floating and water gushing indoors.

 

Residents on Avenida Ronda Este near Avenida del Chorrico watched helplessly as debris-clogged drains failed under the pressure. In Totana, another crew rescued two people from a vehicle that had plunged into a canal.

 

 

Roads turned into rivers too. By noon, four regional routes stayed closed: RM-E10 in Alhama de Murcia over the rambla de Las Salinas; RM-D22 in Totana at the rambla Lébor; RM-D4 in Mazarrón at Las Moreras; and RM-23 near Mazarrón. Traffic crawled on RM-19 near Himoinsa and RMD-18 in Águilas' Cocón area.

 

This comes hot on the heels of last weekend's heavy rains on 13-14 December, which shut streets and suspended classes in flood-prone Los Alcázares. Regional leaders point to the Inunmur flood plan's successes, like stormwater tanks that recently spared the Mar Menor from 55 Olympic pools' worth of spill and limited farm damage to €1.5 million over 700 hectares.

 

 

Video: Policía Local Águilas/Facebook

Image: CARM