Runoff from the downpour threatened to carry ash and mud into communities in southern Ávila already hit by a major summer wildfire. On Monday, 9 November, the Junta of Castilla y León declared situation 2 under the regional INUNCYL flood-protection plan after the State Meteorological Agency (AEMET) forecast intense rainfall. The provincial emergency coordination response began on Monday afternoon.
The regional government announced that classes would be suspended on Tuesday, 10 November, across 32 municipalities in southern Ávila, home to about 49,000 people. The announcement covered 32 school-transport routes serving 943 pupils who normally attend ten receiving schools. The closures were scheduled for the period when the weather warning was due to reach red level.
AEMET’s warning was scheduled to move from orange at midnight to red from 9am on Tuesday, with expected accumulations of 120 litres per square metre in 12 hours. The red warning was expected to continue into Wednesday before conditions eased to yellow. Territorial delegate José Francisco Hernández Herrero said the authorities would restrict movement in the affected area as far as possible and urged residents to limit journeys to those that were strictly necessary. The provincial integrated operational coordination centre, known as the Cecopi, coordinated the response. Situation 2 applies when flooding and overflowing waterways may exceed ordinary local response capacity. That requires coordinated provincial action.
The affected towns included Casavieja, where water-supply intakes had failed again after being restored following rain a month earlier. Hernández Herrero said forecasts could bring 120 litres per square metre in 12 hours, with local totals potentially reaching 200 or even 300 litres. The area included many of the communities affected by Spain’s second-largest wildfire, which burned close to 38,000 hectares over the summer.
A separate report documented a slope failure that closed the SA-203 near Paso de los Lobos in Ávila province, in an earlier account. For the rain emergency, forecasts at the time placed the heaviest downpour from 9am on Tuesday and expected it to continue into the following day. The warning was then due to fall to yellow as the storm passed.
