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FLOODS

Death toll from heavy rains in Spain rises to five

The death toll from heavy rains that lashed most of Spain last weekend rose to five Friday after police recovered the bodies of two men who had been reported missing.

Published: 8 September 2023 17:38 CEST
Death toll from heavy rains in Spain rises to five
Death toll from heavy rains in Spain rises to five. Photo: Handout / ATAIRE / AFP

And fears were growing for the fate of a sixth person, a woman missing from Toledo, central Spain. 

The body of an 83-year-old man swept away by floodwaters in the town of Villamanta near Madrid was recovered seven kilometres (four miles) from where he went missing, said Guardia Civil police force spokeswoman Ana Martín.

Police also found the body of a 47-year-old whose car had been swept away by a swollen river in the nearby town of Aldea del Fresco, she added.

Emergency services on Monday rescued his wife and two children who were also in the vehicle.

They included his 10-year-old son, who had spent the night perched in a tree above the floodwaters.

The head of the regional government of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, offered her condolences in a post on X, formerly Twitter, and paid tribute to the work of the rescue services.

“Our love to their families and to the area residents and police and emergency services workers who did not stop looking for them,” she wrote. “We stand by you.”

The weekend storm, which swept across the whole country, transformed streets into raging torrents, hurled cars into rivers and washed away roads and bridges.

The storms disrupted travel for tens of thousands of people on the final weekend before the start of the new school year.

The high-speed rail links between the Spanish capital and the southwestern region of Andalusia and the east coast region of Valencia was one main travel forced to close.

Rescuers had already found the bodies of three men on Monday in the central province of Toledo.

Emergency services are still looking for a woman missing from the town of Valmojado in Toledo.

Scientists warn that extreme weather such as heatwaves and storms is becoming more intense as a result of climate change.

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CLIMATE CRISIS

‘Extreme’ climate blamed for world’s worst wine harvest in 62 years

World wine production dropped 10 percent last year, the biggest fall in more than six decades, because of "extreme" climate changes, the body that monitors the trade said on Thursday.

Published: 26 April 2024 08:48 CEST
'Extreme' climate blamed for world's worst wine harvest in 62 years

“Extreme environmental conditions” including droughts, fires and other problems with climate were mostly to blame for the drastic fall, said the International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV) that covers nearly 50 wine producing countries.

Australia and Italy suffered the worst, with 26 and 23 percent drops. Spain lost more than a fifth of its production. Harvests in Chile and South Africa were down by more than 10 percent.

The OIV said the global grape harvest was the worst since 1961, and worse even than its early estimates in November.

In further bad news for winemakers, customers drank three per cent less wine in 2023, the French-based intergovernmental body said.

Director John Barker highlighted “drought, extreme heat and fires, as well as heavy rain causing flooding and fungal diseases across major northern and southern hemisphere wine producing regions.”

Although he said climate problems were not solely to blame for the drastic fall, “the most important challenge that the sector faces is climate change.

“We know that the grapevine, as a long-lived plant cultivated in often vulnerable areas, is strongly affected by climate change,” he added.

France bucked the falling harvest trend, with a four percent rise, making it by far the world’s biggest wine producer.

Wine consumption last year was however at its lowest level since 1996, confirming a fall-off over the last five years, according to the figures.

The trend is partly due to price rises caused by inflation and a sharp fall in wine drinking in China – down a quarter – due to its economic slowdown.

The Portuguese, French and Italians remain the world’s biggest wine drinkers per capita.

Barker said the underlying decrease in consumption is being “driven by demographic and lifestyle changes. But given the very complicated influences on global demand at the moment,” it is difficult to know whether the fall will continue.

“What is clear is that inflation is the dominant factor affecting demand in 2023,” he said.

Land given over to growing grapes to eat or for wine fell for the third consecutive year to 7.2 million hectares (17.7 million acres).

But India became one of the global top 10 grape producers for the first time with a three percent rise in the size of its vineyards.

France, however, has been pruning its vineyards back slightly, with its government paying winemakers to pull up vines or to distil their grapes.

The collapse of the Italian harvest to its lowest level since 1950 does not necessarily mean there will be a similar contraction there, said Barker.

Between floods and hailstones, and damp weather causing mildew in the centre and south of the country, the fall was “clearly linked to meteorological conditions”, he said.

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