Many others experienced trouble in Madrid. The airport and S-Ban were closed on Saturday until further notice. The Renfe Railway Company has cut several connections. “Frost of the century paralyzes Madrid”, the headline of the newspaper “ABC”. Emet, the weather service, declared the capital to have the largest snowfall since 1971.

Meanwhile, on one of the ring roads, Patricia Mansanaras and her companions were waiting for help. “We have been trapped here for more than 15 hours and no one has brought us water, blankets or food,” a journalist on Spanish television said on his mobile phone. She complained: “We have no information. There is a three or four year old girl in the car next to us.”

Thick white flakes had been falling continuously from the sky in Madrid since Friday morning. Heavy snowfall and the neighboring Castile-La Mancha do not stop until Sunday morning.

“Philomena” not only embarrassed Madrid. Authorities said about 400 highways, country roads and other roads were blocked across the country. Soccer games canceled. From Friday evening to Saturday evening there was a high red alert in the capital and in ten of the 50 provinces of the country.

A 54-year-old man has been found dead in Sarsalejo, northwest of Madrid. A homeless man froze to death Saturday in a park in Madrid’s Carabanchel district. Also, a man and a woman died in Fungirola, in the southern Spanish province of Malaga, when their vehicle was swept away by floodwaters overnight.

The Military Emergency Response Unit UME has had to travel across the country several times since Friday evening. 147 troops and 66 vehicles were deployed. However, media reports said that the army was completely destroyed on Saturday due to several emergencies.

“Philomena” also set a record: the lowest temperature ever recorded in Spain was recorded on Thursday in Vega de Leord വ്യാഴs, 400 km north of Madrid in the province of Lyon.

© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210109-99-954251 / 4