More than 150 Dead in Spain’s Worst Flood-Related Disaster

VALENCIA/GODELLETA:

The death toll from devastating floods in eastern Spain rose to 158 on Thursday; Rescuers are still searching for those missing in what could become Europe’s worst storm-related disaster in more than five decades.

“Dozens and dozens of missing people have to be added to the total of 158 people,” Angel Victor Torres, the minister responsible for cooperation with Spain’s regions, said at a press conference.

A year’s worth of rain fell in eight hours in parts of the Valencia region on Tuesday.

The tragedy is already Spain’s worst flood-related disaster in modern history, and meteorologists say human-caused climate change is making such extreme weather events more frequent and devastating.

At least 185 people died in the severe floods in Germany in 2021. Before this, 209 people died in Romania in 1970, and approximately 500 people died in the flood in Portugal in 1967.

Rescuers found the bodies of eight people, including a local police officer, trapped in a garage on the outskirts of the city of Valencia on Thursday, Mayor Maria Jose Catala told reporters.

He said a 45-year-old woman was also found dead in her home in the same neighborhood of La Torre.

Thousands of people carrying bags or pushing shopping carts were seen crossing a pedestrian bridge over the Turia River from La Torre to Valencia city center on Thursday to stock up on essential supplies such as toilet paper and water.

Opposition politicians accused the central government in Madrid of being too slow to warn residents and send rescue teams; This led the Ministry of Internal Affairs to say that regional authorities were responsible for civilian protection measures.

“These people would not have died if they had been warned in time,” Laura Villaescusa, a neighbor and manager of a local supermarket, told Reuters.

Maribel Albalat, mayor of the nearby town of Paiporta, said residents were not warned of the imminent danger of flooding. He said 62 people died in his town.

“We found a lot of elderly people in their homes and people who went to collect their cars. It was a trap,” he told TVE.

STICKING TO YOUR MILK

In Godelleta, a town 37 km (23 miles) west of the city of Valencia, Antonio Molina, 52, described how he survived Tuesday by clinging to a pillar on his neighbor’s porch as water reached his neck.

Molina’s home suffered two major floods in 2018 and 2020, and he accused authorities of allowing housing construction in depressions where water accumulated.

“We don’t want to live here anymore,” he said, crying. “As soon as we see a few raindrops, we start checking our phones.”

Floods battered Valencia’s infrastructure; it washed away bridges, roads and railway lines and flooded farmland in the region, which produces about two-thirds of Spain’s citrus crops such as oranges and which the country exports globally.

Transport Minister Oscar Puente said about 80 km (50 miles) of roads in the eastern region were severely damaged or impassable. The paths of many were blocked by abandoned cars.

“Unfortunately, there are bodies in some vehicles,” Puente told reporters, adding that it would take two to three weeks for the high-speed rail connection between Valencia and Madrid to be re-established.

Visiting a rescue coordination center near the city of Valencia, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez called on people to stay at home due to the threat of further stormy weather.

“The most important thing right now is to protect as many lives as possible,” he told reporters.

In the hard-hit rural town of Utiel, about 85 km (53 miles) inland, the Magro River burst its banks, sending up to three meters (9.8 feet) of water into mostly single-storey homes.

Utiel mayor Ricardo Gabaldon said at least six people had died in the town of about 12,000, most of them elderly or disabled people who could not climb to safety.

Citizens who started cleaning on Thursday used water pumps carried on tractors, while children helped sweep the sidewalks. While ruined household appliances and furniture piled up in the middle of the road, elderly people had difficulty walking on slippery, muddy streets.

Pope Francis said he was praying for the people of the region. “I stand with them in this moment of disaster,” he said in a video published on X.

The low-pressure system behind the floods in Spain benefited from an “atmospheric river” carrying excess moisture from the unusually warm Tropical Atlantic, research group Climate Central said in a report published Thursday.

According to the Climate Change Index: Ocean, human-caused climate change has made these higher sea surface temperatures at least 50 to 300 times more likely.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is syndicated.)