The holiday resort of Estepona – where around 2,000 people were trapped in their homes on a residential estate a short drive from the coast after an access road was washed away – was one of the worst-affected areas.
Residents at the Forest Hills estate, nestled in the hills above the town just the other side of the motorway, were also left without electricity.
The local council spent most of the day trying to provide those affected with an alternative route out of their estate, although they were yet to reach a solution late on Sunday night.
Schools in Estepona – and several other parts of Malaga including Campillos near Antequera where locals had to be rescued from the roofs of their homes by helicopter – were closed today.
The floods claimed the life of a 47-year-old father-of-two fireman named as Jose Gil, who died when the fire engine he was driving overturned and ended up in a swollen river.
Two colleagues managed to escape via the window of the overturned vehicle to reach safety but tragically Mr Gil was swept away by the strong currents.
His body was found hours later several miles downstream.
Many parts of the Costa del Sol had been put on red alert on Friday, with heavy rain predicted for the following morning although the downpour started later than expected.
Some areas received more than half the rain they normally get in a year in just a few hours, with local reports describing the deluge as “historic”.
A bridge coaches use to take visitors to the popular Caminito del Rey, a walkway pinned along the steep walks of a narrow gorge and once branded the world’s most dangerous walkway, was broken in two and is expected to take weeks to repair.
The Arab Baths in Ronda, one of the town’s most important tourist attractions, were also affected after the floodwater brought down a wall separating the monument from the Guadalevin River.
Alfonso Rodriguez, the Spanish government spokesman for the Andalucia region, said work was now underway to evaluate the damage so parts of Malaga could be declared a disaster zone.
The intense rain came less than two weeks after devastating floods which left 13 people including two Brits dead in Majorca – and British OAP Roger Hanks who is missing and feared dead in Coin near Malaga.
The Majorca victims included British couple Antony and Delia Green, whose taxi was swept away by flash floods, and British expat David Robinson’s five-year-old son Arthur whose body was found last Wednesday after an eight-day search. His mother Joana Lliteras also died.