Heavy snowfall in decades, by Storm Filomena, cut off entire areas across Spain and killed four people, while forecasters are expecting weather conditions to further worsened.
In the Madrid area, rescuers reached 1,500 people trapped in cars, while police strived to clear a large snowball. The capital's main international airport was closed and the operator said would not re-open until Sunday afternoon at the earliest, when flights would resume gradually.
A 36-year-old woman gave birth in an ambulance in Madrid on Saturday after health workers were unable to get her to hospital. One man and a woman in a car drowned after a river burst near Malaga in the south, while two homeless people froze to death in Madrid and Calatayud in the east, officials said.
The Spanish government announced that it will send convoys carrying the COVID-19 vaccine and food supplies on Sunday to areas cut off as authorities appealed for citizens to stay at home for risk of accidents or spreading coronavirus.
Still the bad is to come, that was the conclusion of the forecasters, who warned of dangerous conditions in the coming days in Spain. According to them, the temperatures are expected to further fall to up to minus 10 Celsius (14 Fahrenheit) within the next days and the prospect of snow turning to ice and damaged trees falling. The State Metereological Agency (Aemet) said up to 20-30 cm (7-8 inches) of snow fell in Madrid on Saturday, the most since 1971.
About 20,000 km of roads across central Spain were affected by the storm and the government would send convoys transporting the vaccine and food supplies to those in need, transport minister Jose Luis Abalos said on Saturday.
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