Winter Storms Leonardo Hit Spain and Portugal with Deadly Floods, Wind Damage

One man died in Portugal after flood waters engulfed his car and a girl was dragged away by a river while trying to rescue her dog. Heavy rains and strong winds from Storm Leonardo lashed the Iberian peninsula, killing several people and causing extensive damage this year, including in storms Marta and Kristin.

A 70-year-old man died on Wednesday in Portugal’s southern Alentejo region when his car was swept away on a flooded road near a dam. In Malaga province, Spain, a girl went missing after being pulled into the Turvilla River while attempting to rescue her dog. Fire Chief Manuel Marmolejo reported spending the whole afternoon and night searching for her.

Reconstruction costs in Portugal could reach over €4 billion ($4.7 billion) following last week’s Storm Kristin alone, Economy Minister Manuel Castro Almeida stated. Residents of Alcacer do Sal faced water reaching waist-deep as rivers breached their banks, leaving restaurant terraces underwater and forcing the use of sandbags to protect homes and shops.

“People have never seen anything like this. It’s surreal,” resident Maria Cadacha said about the flooding. “Many shopkeepers and good-hearted people live here; I wouldn’t want to be in their shoes.” Emergency services across Andalusia had handled over a million incidents by midnight on Wednesday, according to an X report.

Fifteen rivers and ten dams were deemed at extreme risk of overflow, according to Antonio Sanz, head of the regional government’s interior department. Portugal’s National Civil Protection registered at least 70 incidents as early Thursday morning. The next storm in this “storm train,” Storm Marta, was expected to hit the region over the weekend by Aemet.