Storm Leonardo flooding kills man in Portugal, woman swept away in Spain

By Jon Nazca and Miguel Pereira

GRAZALEMA, Spain/ Feb 5 (Reuters) – Storm Leonardo pounded the Iberian peninsula with torrential rains on Thursday, prompting more flood warnings, as a man was killed by a deluge in Portugal and Spanish rescuers searched for a woman swept away by a river as she tried to save her dog.

Leonardo is the latest in a wave of half a dozen winter storms to hit Portugal and Spain since the start of 2026, killing several people, ripping roofs off homes and flooding towns. 

Flooding is becoming more frequent across Europe as the atmosphere warms and holds more moisture due to climate change, scientists say. Unprecedented flash floods killed 237 people in Spain’s Valencia region in October 2024.

A man of around 70 died on Wednesday in Portugal’s southern Alentejo region after his car was swept away on a flooded road near a dam, Portuguese authorities said.

In southern Spain’s Malaga province, authorities searched for a woman dragged away in the strong current of the Turvilla River while trying to rescue her dog.

 “We spent the whole afternoon and night yesterday searching. We found the dog, but not her,” Malaga fire chief Manuel Marmolejo said on Spanish television.

‘AT FIRST WE THOUGHT IT WAS AN EARTHQUAKE’

Authorities ordered the evacuation of Grazalema’s approximately 1,500 residents as water seeped through the walls of houses and down steep cobbled streets of the mountain village popular with hikers.

“From beneath the ground, the pipes creak…We were very scared. At first we thought it was an earthquake, but it wasn’t. It was the creaking. It was a very bad night,” said resident Maria Fernandez, as she swept water from her home.

Juan Manuel Moreno, president of Andalusia’s regional government, said Grazalema had received the same amount of rain in 16 hours as falls in the Madrid region in a year.

Two reservoirs down the mountain from Grazalema were at risk of overflowing. Authorities planned to drain them, he said.

In southern Portugal, people waded waist-deep through Alcacer do Sal after the river Sado breached its banks. Restaurant terraces were completely underwater, with sandbags stacked in front of doors to protect homes and shops.

Anabela Ramalho, a 59-year-old nursing home worker, said everything in the care home was destroyed.

“Only the walls are left,” she said. “There’s a feeling like we can’t do anything… I don’t remember seeing anything like this.”

Storm Marta, the next weather front in the so-called “storm train”, is expected to hit the region over the weekend, according to state weather agency Aemet.

(Reporting by Jon Nazca in Grazalema, Miguel Pereira in Alcacer do Sal; Paolo Laudani in Gdansk, Emma Pinedo in Madrid and Andrey Khalip in Lisbon; editing by Charlie Devereux, Alexandra Hudson and Ros Russell)