Tragic Flash Floods in Spain Claim Over 95 Lives

Flash floods in Spain turned village streets into rivers, destroyed homes, interrupted transportation, and killed at least 95 people in the greatest natural disaster to strike the European country in recent years.

Rainstorms that began on Tuesday and continued through Wednesday caused flooding throughout southern and eastern Spain, from Malaga to Valencia.

Muddy floods hurled automobiles along streets at breakneck speeds while rubbish and household goods swirled in the water. Police and rescue officials utilized helicopters to transfer people from their homes, and rubber boats to reach drivers stranded on their automobiles.

On Wednesday, emergency services in the eastern district of Valencia confirmed the death toll at 92. Another two casualties recorded in neighboring Castilla La Mancha, while one death confirmed in southern Andalusia.

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“Yesterday was the worst day of my life,” Ricardo Gabaldón, mayor of Utiel, a municipality in Valencia, told national radio RTVE Wednesday. He stated that six residents died and others were missing.

“We were trapped like rats. Cars and rubbish containers were moving down the streets. “The water had risen to 3 meters (9.8 feet),” he stated.

Spain’s government declared three days of mourning beginning Thursday.

“For those looking for their loved ones, all of Spain feels your pain,” Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said in a televised speech.

Rescue workers and 1,100 troops from Spain’s emergency response teams dispatched to the impacted districts. Spain’s central government formed a crisis committee to coordinate rescue efforts.

Javier Berenguer, 63, evacuated his bakery in Utiel as crushing water threatened to drown him. He claims it swelled to 2.5 meters (8.2 feet) inside his shop, and he worries his livelihood is lost.

“I had to climb out of a window as quickly as possible because the water was already up to my shoulders. “I took safety on the first floor with other people and stayed there all night,” Berenguer explained to The Associated Press. “It’s taken everything. I must empty the bakery, including the freezers and ovens.”

María Carmen Martínez, another Utiel resident, witnessed a dramatic rescue.

“It was just awful. “There was a man there clinging to a fence, falling and calling for help,” she explained. “They couldn’t help him until the helicopters came and took him away.”

Paiporta, a Valencian town, sustained a first-ever loss. Mayor Maribel Albalat told RTVE that approximately 30 individuals died in the city of 25,000 residents. Six of them lived in senior housing.

News outlets published footage of older people in chairs and wheelchairs at a Paiporta nursing home, some of whom cried out in apparent panic as the water surged beyond their knees.

“We don’t know what happened, but in 10 minutes, the town was overflowing with water,” Albalat recalled.

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Spain’s national weather service reported putting more in Valencia in eight hours than in the previous 20 months, calling the rainfall “extraordinary.”

Valencia, located south of Barcelona on the Mediterranean coast, is a tourist attraction famed for its beaches, citrus plantations, and the origin of the rice dish paella.

The region features valleys and little riverbanks that are entirely dry for much of the year but quickly fill up with water when it rains. Many of them travel through populated areas.

As the Flash floods in Spain, floodwaters fled, thick dirt and trash rendered some streets unrecognizable.

“The neighborhood has been demolished; every vehicle is on top of each other; it’s messed up,” said Christian Viena, a bar owner in the Valencian village of Barrio de la Torre, by phone. “All things are in ruin and ready to be thrown. The dirt is more than 30 cm (11 in) deep.

People were gathering outside Viena’s tavern to see what they might save. Cars stacked high, and the streets littered with clumps of waterlogged branches.

Spain has seen comparable fall storms in recent years. Nothing, however, compares to the damage of the previous two days, which is equivalent to floods in Germany and Belgium in 2021 that killed 230 people.

The death toll expected to grow as neighboring regions report deaths and search activities continue in remote areas.

“We are facing a tough situation,” Minister of Territory Initiatives Ángel Víctor Torres remarked. “The fact that we are unable to identify a number of the missing persons shows the scope of the tragedy.”

Spain continues to recover from an extensive drought and has experienced record-high temperatures in recent years. According to scientists, rising extreme weather episodes are most likely due to climate change. The extended drought makes it harder for the land to absorb large amounts of water.

The storms also produced a rare tornado and a freak hailstorm, which ripped holes in car windows and greenhouses.

Transportation also disrupted. A high-speed train carrying over 300 people derailed in Malaga, but rail officials claimed no one injured.

High-speed transportation between Valencia and Madrid has been suspended, and the transport ministry announced that due to line damage, it could take up to four days to restart service to the capital.

Bus and commuter rail service also interrupted. Many flights canceled on Tuesday night, leaving approximately 1,500 people stranded at Valencia’s airport overnight. Flights resumed on Wednesday.

Soccer games between Valencia and Levante canceled, and players from Barcelona and Madrid observed a moment of remembrance for Flash floods in Spain victims before training on Wednesday.

Valencian regional President Carlos Mazón recommended that residents stay home, describing traffic conditions as challenging due to fallen trees and broken automobiles.

Rescue attempts suffered delays by downed power lines and power outages, and the regional emergency service reacted to approximately 30,000 calls, Mazón reported.

Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission’s President, told Brussels journalists that the EU will “help manage the rescue teams” with its Copernicus geo-monitoring satellite system.

Some residents used social media, television, and radio to seek information about their lost loved ones.

Leonardo Enrique told RTVE that his family spent hours searching for his 40-year-old son, Leonardo Enrique Rivera, who was operating a delivery van when the rain started.

Enrique claimed his son sent a message claiming his van was flooding and that he had been hit by another car near Ribarroja, an industrial town that is one of the worst impacted.