Escalona has counted 100 evacuated neighbors and 200 affected homes and calls for continued caution
The Government of Castilla-La Mancha, through the Directorate of the Special Plan for Civil Protection against the Risk of Floods in Castilla-La Mancha (Pricam), has reported that the weather forecast for the coming days is «more positive», with a break in the rain expected, and the absence of storms, but has warned that river levels in the provinces of Toledo and Guadalajara will remain high.
This is mainly due to the reservoir releases that feed into them, considering that water is also coming from Madrid’s reservoir releases with significant amounts, resulting in «exaggerated» flows in Toledo and Talavera de la Reina.
«Out of the 23 days of March, all 23 have been rainy,» highlighted the Minister of Finance, Public Administrations, and Digital Transformation, Juan Alfonso Ruiz Molina, alongside the regional president, Emiliano García-Page, who traveled to the town of Escalona in Toledo on Sunday.
In the Alberche area, water levels are decreasing. The main concern now lies in Talavera de la Reina, where President Emiliano García-Page has traveled to after the meeting, and where, according to the minister, «the situation is under control.»
Ruiz Molina emphasized how water levels in the Alberche area have decreased from Saturday night to Sunday, although the Tagus River Basin Authority (CHT) has warned that significant amounts of water will continue to be released, but gradually decreasing.
Furthermore, he continued to refer to the shelters, which are all still open. Five people spent the night at the one located in the municipal sports center of Escalona, eleven people were accommodated in the one in Santa Cruz de Retamar last night, and one has been set up in Herencia, with four people accommodated. While those in Talavera de la Reina, Loranca de Tajuña, and Fuencemillán remain active but without occupants.
Regarding the National Hospital for Paraplegics in Toledo, Ruiz Molina reported that the situation is «under control,» as they do not expect the containment walls installed this week by the Emergency Military Unit (UME) to be breached. This, combined with the contingency plan they had at the hospital, «gives us quite a bit of peace of mind.»
As for the province of Guadalajara, which was where the most concern started, «the situation is stable.»
ESCALONA, 100 FAMILIES AND 200 HOMES
The mayor of Escalona has described the situation as «stable,» with a slight decrease in the river level, going from 380 m3 per second on Saturday to 300 m3 per second that will be released throughout Sunday.
He has counted 100 evacuated families with over 200 affected homes, which will remain evacuated in the coming hours.
He has appealed for prevention and caution because this episode of rain «has not ended yet.» «The storms go away, the rain goes away, the sun comes out, and a new danger called thaw appears, so we will continue to be alert, we will continue to be prepared, and we will certainly be available to help the neighbors,» he emphasized.
PRIORITIZING FAMILIES
García-Page has prioritized attention to evacuated families «and the recovery,» in parallel, «of the public infrastructure» that has been damaged by the rising river levels, at a time when all forecasts already indicate that «the situation will normalize» in the riverbeds that cross the region, mainly the Tagus and Alberche rivers.
He also welcomed the fact that «we do not have to regret personal lives lost» in a situation where «prevention systems have been alerted from the very beginning,» as well as «the entire system and apparatus of Castilla-La Mancha,» which have been activated «from minute one.» Since the activation of Pricam on March 8, a total of 238 incidents related to the storm have been recorded, most of them located in the two most affected provinces. Also present at this morning’s meeting were the delegate of the Regional Government in the province of Toledo and mayor of Escalona, Álvaro Gutiérrez, as well as representatives of the various security and intervention forces participating in the operation.238 INCIDENTS