Valencia red weather warning: I have evacuated. Did I overreact?

[Laralou991]

This afternoon my phone buzzed very loudly with a red weather warning alert from the government (attached). All schools and public services are closed for the next 2 days. My husband is away with work and I have a 2 and 4 year old. We moved here a month ago and do not have a lot of supplies in, and as it’s Sunday just the small local shop is open. We also don’t know anybody locally so have no immediate support system.

Have I overreacted to have left Valencia and travelled to a relatives in another part of Spain? I’d rather be at home, but went into a panic and was madly packing our suitcases to get out the area. It felt a bit like an Apolcolypse. During the last floods apparently the shops ran out of water and I was worried we could end up trapped with road closures etc.

Have I massively overreacted here?

I think you have done exactly the right thing. I would have wanted to be with another adult. Is your husband saying you were over reacting?

Avoid travel after the start time. And if you’re in a flood prone zone, travel to a higher up location.

Given what happened almost a year ago then I say you’ve made a sensible decision.

So what if you have? It's just visiting a relative, no harm done. Better to over react than under!

If it’s a similar scale to the U.K., yes, we had a red warning where I live and it was just normal heavy rain and a bit windy, something they didn’t make a fuss about unless you run a ferry company for instance.

if the weather system is the one that was over Portugal yesterday, I can tell you it’s got a lot of rain in it, though my motorcycle gear has soaked much of it. Wet but only like weather perpetually is in Scotland to be fair, hardier than me up there(love Scotland but I get soaked every time). I have soggy boots, will not get them dry in time

You’ve done the right thing. I work for the Environment Agency in a role that could issue these emergency alerts in the UK . There is a hierachy of decisions that have to be made, and triggers that must be met before they are issued. It’s never on a whim. I imagine it’s similar in Spain.

I would always advise someone to travel to high ground or friends/relatives in a safe location if you can get there safely in the time available.

No. Better safe than sorry!

Completely the right thing to do, when it rains in Spain it’s biblical and there aren’t gutters everywhere to direct the water flow. We were expecting heavy rain further down the coast but it seems to have shifted. Hopefully it will be a storm in a teacup and you can safely return home.

On my own with small kids and relatives I could have escaped to, I would have done exactly the same

I do wonder if what you got is the equivalent of yellow weather warnings that we get eg not that serious, but the style of wording is quite alarming

I would say you overreacted. Those kind of alerts are very common in a lot of countries. It is basically saying there is a risk of flooding so be careful in flood areas and near rivers.

Actually, those ones aren’t. They are issued when there is a signigicant threat to life. They are different to the normal flood warnings.

I hope you are sage @Laralou991

I would have done the same thing with two young children. Don't analyse this anymore, you made the call, most probably from listening to your instinct, and there is nothing wrong with that. Peace of mind, especially with young kiddies, is very important.

Seems to be a sensible move considering you are on your own with two children, not from the area or have a local based support network, you have an alternative option. I think you made the best decision given your individual circumstances.

No to be honest it was more the attitude of the Spaniards. I was in a soft play when everybody got the alarm and people were laughing at it. Nobody was at the petrol station, or shops or really leaving Valencia. Just made me think when my panic had settled that maybe id taken it way too far

Just to give an update we are all safe, thanks for the well wishes. Apparently it started at 10pm last night and was quite a scary storm. Very loud thunder and lightning. A friend said all the electricity was turning off and when it turned back on all the lights and tv would turn on! Glad I wasn’t there. Apparently it should lessen tomorrow afternoon 🤞

Were you in a coastal area? Did you travel before the estimated start time? You know the answers. Providing you all were and are safe then that's what matters. Given the awful events of last year I can understand why you moved.

A mother’s worry keeps children alive.

Also, never mind how calm OTHER people are in these sort of situations. Their complacency may not always be the right course of action. I always think of the Head of Security for Morgan Stanley in the Twin Towers in New York called Rick Rescorla. Rick used to annoy his Morgan Stanley colleagues by running evacuation drills and making them practice their routes. I’m sure some people accused him of being ‘over cautious’ (or worse). However, when the planes hit the towers, Rick Rescorla quickly and efficiently evacuated all his floors, then went back repeatedly and got even more people out. He sadly died by going into the building one last time but his actions, both before and on the day of 9/11, saved the lives of over 2700 people.

Sounds like it would have been scary with 2 small kids.

Glad to hear you're ok @Laralou991 I'm thinking of moving to Oliva, south of Valencia. I know you've said you've only been in Valencia a month but any top tips or reasons to move or not? Also @Valenciawarningmessage and @bert3400 I'd love to hear your advantages and disadvantages. We won't need schools so don't need to factor that in.

How many people drowned last year because of the bad weather op? You definitely did the right thing.

You did the right thing because you’re new to the area and didn’t know how safe you’d be. Well down for protecting your little ones.

I lived in Tenerife for years and didn’t appreciate the warnings of what heavy rain did/ does until I witnessed it.

This is what weather warnings are for. You’ve assessed your own situation and made a good choice.

EDIT - clearly should have read the updates and full thread! Sorry

Considering the floods in Valencia last Autumn, I don’t blame you. If you had somewhere you could easily get to out of the area, then better safe than sorry. There may be an over reaction with the warning, but it’s totally understandable, and again, better forewarned of possibilities.

We watched the documentary about the hurricanes in new Orleans and some people didn't listen or had nowhere else to go. It was awful what some people went through.
Water is a very powerful and scary part of nature and if you have been advised to evacuate you should. If it turns out it wasn't needed the worst that had happened is an inconvenience

We had a red weather warning here in scotland that we got the alert for, I think it was earlier this year but it could have been last year. It was fine, I definitely wouldn’t have left the house in it and there was some property damage but it wasn’t so bad I was worried and didn’t have to stock up past making sure we had dinner and whatnot in for that day or two.

I think unless you were specifically advised people to evacuate you probably did over react but there’s no harm in it. Worst that can happen is you get ribbed by family /friends for a bit but at least you’ve got peace of mind.