At least 95 people die in devastating flash floods

UTIEL (AP):

Flash floods in Spain turned village streets into rivers, ruined homes, disrupted transportation and killed at least 95 people in the worst natural disaster to hit the European nation in recent memory.

Rainstorms that started on Tuesday and continued on Wednesday caused flooding across southern and eastern Spain, stretching from Malaga to Valencia. Muddy torrents tumbled vehicles down streets at high speeds, while debris and household items swirled in the water. Police and rescue services used helicopters to lift people from their homes and rubber boats to reach drivers stranded atop cars.

Emergency services in the eastern region of Valencia confirmed a death toll of 92 people on Wednesday. Another two casualties were reported in the neighbouring Castilla La Mancha region, while southern Andalusia reported one death.

“Yesterday was the worst day of my life,” Ricardo Gabaldón, the mayor of Utiel, a town in Valencia, told national broadcaster RTVE on Wednesday. He said six residents perished and more are missing.

“We were trapped like rats. Cars and trash containers were flowing down the streets. The water was rising to three metres (9.8 feet),” he said.

Spain’s government declared three days of mourning, starting on Thursday.

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

Rescue personnel and more than 1,100 soldiers from Spain’s emergency response units were deployed to affected areas. Spain’s central government set up a crisis committee to coordinate rescue efforts.

Javier Berenguer, 63, escaped his bakery in Utiel when crushing water threatened to overwhelm him. He said it rose to 2.5 metres (8.2 feet) inside his business, and he fears that his livelihood has been destroyed.

“I had to get out of a window as best I could because the water was already coming up to my shoulders. I took refuge on the first floor with the neighbours and I stayed there all night,” Berenguer told The Associated Press. “It has taken everything. I have to throw everything out of the bakery; the freezers, ovens, everything.”

IT WAS HORROBLE!

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

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

One Valencia town, Paiporta, suffered exceptional loss. Mayor Maribel Albalat told RTVE that over 30 people died in the town of some 25,000 people. Those included six residents of a senior residence. News media broadcast footage of seniors in chairs and wheelchairs at a Paiporta nursing home, some crying out in apparent terror as the water rose over their knees.

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

Spain’s national weather service said it rained more in eight hours in Valencia than it had in the preceding 20 months, calling the deluge “extraordinary”.

Located south of Barcelona on the Mediterranean coast, Valencia is a tourist destination known for its beaches, citrus orchards, and as the origin of the rice dish, paella. The region has gorges and small riverbeds that spend much of the year completely dry, but quickly fill with water when it rains. Many of them pass through populated areas.

As the floods receded, thick layers of mud mixed with refuse made some streets unrecognisable.

“The neighbourhood is destroyed, all the cars are on top of each other, it’s literally smashed up,” Christian Viena, a bar owner in the Valencian village of Barrio de la Torre, said by phone. “Everything is a total wreck, everything is ready to be thrown away. The mud is almost 30 centimetres (11 inches) deep.”

Outside Viena’s bar, people were venturing out to see what they could salvage. Cars were piled up, and the streets were filled with clumps of water-logged branches.

Spain has experienced similar autumn storms in recent years. Nothing, however, compared to the devastation over the last two days, which recalls floods in Germany and Belgium in 2021 in which 230 people were killed.

The death toll will likely rise, with other regions yet to report victims and search efforts continuing in hard-to-reach places.

“We are facing a very difficult situation,” Minister of Territory Policies Ángel Víctor Torres said. “The fact that we can’t give a number of the missing persons indicates the magnitude of the tragedy.”

Spain is still recovering from a severe drought and has registered record-high temperatures in recent years. Scientists say increased episodes of extreme weather are likely linked to climate change. The prolonged drought makes it more difficult for the land to absorb high volumes of water.

The storms also unleashed a rare tornado and a freak hailstorm that punched holes in car windows and greenhouses.

Transport was also affected. A high-speed train with nearly 300 people on board derailed near Malaga, although rail authorities said no one was hurt. High-speed train service between Valencia city and Madrid was interrupted, and the transport ministry said it could take up to four days to restore high-speed service to the capital due to the damage done to the line. Bus and commuter rail lines were likewise interrupted. Many flights were cancelled on Tuesday night, stranding some 1,500 people overnight at Valencia’s airport. Flights resumed on Wednesday.

Soccer games involving Valencia and Levante were cancelled, and players from Barcelona and Madrid held a moment of silence for victims of the flood before training on Wednesday.

Valencian regional President Carlos Mazón urged people to stay at home, saying travel by road was difficult due to fallen trees and wrecked vehicles. Rescue efforts were hampered by downed power lines and power outages, and the regional emergency service responded to some 30,000 calls, Mazón said.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told reporters in Brussels that the EU will “help coordinate the rescue teams” using its Copernicus geo-monitoring satellite system.