MADRID/LISBON, Feb 13 (Reuters) – A 46-year-old woman died in Barcelona on Friday after she was hit by a piece of warehouse roof blown down by the eighth storm to sweep across the Iberian Peninsula this year, officials said.
Heavy rain, thunder, snow and strong gales have repeatedly battered Spain and Portugal, damaging infrastructure and crops and forcing authorities to evacuate thousands of people.
“This succession of eight storms … is truly extraordinary,” Spanish Agriculture Minister Luis Planas told national broadcaster TVE.
“We need to consider whether this is an extraordinary phenomenon or whether, looking ahead, it could happen more often.”
About 14,000 hectares (35,000 acres) of berries, citrus fruit, olives and other crops have been damaged, and that figure could increase significantly, Planas said.
Spain has recorded 38% more rainfall than average since October, according to state weather service AEMET.
In the medieval Portuguese city of Coimbra, officials handed out flyers warning of a major flood and said 9,000 people may have to be evacuated from low-lying areas.
Water levels at the Aguieira dam and reservoir on the Mondego River near the city edged back from 99% overnight, but further rain expected on Friday afternoon could make it overflow and cause severe flooding downriver, the city council said.
Schools and the University of Coimbra were closed, and businesses were asked to tell staff to work from home where possible.
AEMET forecast widespread rainfall across the peninsula and the Balearic Islands, and snow at low altitudes in the north of Spain for Friday.
Schools were also closed in 22 towns in Spain’s southern region of Andalusia where 3,100 people have been evacuated.
In the village of Grazalema, where 1,500 residents were evacuated earlier this month as aquifers filled and raised the risk of landslides, forecasts warned of up to 180 mm of rain in the next 24 hours.
The woman in Barcelona was hit by the falling roof on Thursday and died from her injuries in hospital early on Friday morning, Catalonia’s health ministry said.
(Reporting by Emma Pinedo, Paolo Laudani and Sergio Gonçalves; editing by Charlie Devereux and Andrew Heavens)
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