MADRID, Oct. 19 (Xinhua) -- The death toll caused by Dana Adam, the latest episode of torrential rain battering northeastern and eastern Spain, has risen to four after two more fatalities were reported in the Valencia region on Monday.
Both deaths occurred in the town of Oliva, near Valencia. A 79-year-old woman was found dead at her home, while a 64-year-old man died of a heart attack at a campsite in the same municipality.
They were the latest victims of the storm. On Sunday morning, the body of a woman swept away by rising floodwaters in northern Barcelona on Saturday evening was discovered. Another woman drowned while bathing in the sea at Sagunto, north of Valencia, on Sunday.
The rainfall has brought accumulations of more than 600 litres per square metre in parts of the Valencia region. The Spanish Meteorological Agency (Aemet) has described the episode as exceptionally severe. The region recorded the last comparable rainfall in November 1987, when 817 litres per square metre were recorded in Oliva in 24 hours, the highest such total recorded in Spain.
The Valencian regional government announced at noon that confinement orders had been lifted in most of the 145 affected municipalities.
Schools have also been closed, while floodwaters have made numerous roads impassable. Emergency services have responded to over 700 incidents across the Valencia region.
Warmer-than-average Mediterranean Sea temperatures this year have probably contributed to the intensity of some rainfall events, according to Aemet. ■