Search for Spain flooding survivors continues as torrential rain hits another region
Emergency teams in Spain are actively searching for dozens of individuals who remain unaccounted for following the worst flooding disaster in generations.
The death toll has surpassed 200, primarily in the Valencia region, and it is anticipated that this number will continue to rise.
The floods have devastated infrastructure, destroying bridges and burying towns in mud, which has left isolated communities without access to water, food, or electricity.
Some residents believe that more lives could have been saved if local authorities had acted more swiftly to issue flood warnings.
Juan González, a resident of Aldaia in Valencia, expressed his devastation to the BBC, stating, “This is an area prone to flash flooding. It’s outrageous that our local government didn’t take any action, knowing this was coming.”
Another local, Augustin, reported that his flat was completely inundated, forcing his family to relocate to his parents’ home.
While the worst of the weather has passed in Valencia and along the Mediterranean coast, warnings remain in effect for southern Spain, where additional heavy rainfall is expected through Saturday. This includes areas like Huelva, which has already experienced severe downpours. The city of Cartaya received approximately two months’ worth of rain in just ten hours.
Further south, in the city of Jerez, hundreds of families had to be evacuated from their homes as heavy rain raised river levels.
Meanwhile, questions remain about how disaster relief services acted, with accusations that they were too slow, and whether Spain has an adequate warning system for natural disasters.
The civil protection agency, overseen by the regional government, issued an emergency alert to the phones of people in and around the city of Valencia after 20:00 local time (19:00 GMT) on Tuesday, by which time the flood water was swiftly rising in many areas and in some cases already wreaking havoc.
Mireia, who lives close to some of the devastation in Valencia, said that people were “not prepared at all”.
“Many people were inside their cars, they couldn’t make it out,” she said. “They were just drowned by the water.”
Thousands of volunteers are currently helping the Spanish military and emergency services with the rescue and clean-up operation, and Valencia’s regional president, Carlos Mazon, said more troops would be deployed.
Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez took to social media to express his thanks to volunteers, calling them an “example of solidarity and the limitless dedication of Spanish society”.
He has vowed that his government will do whatever it takes to help those affected by the disaster.
In the devastated town of Paiporta, where more than 60 deaths have so far been reported, residents have expressed their frustration that aid is coming in too slowly.
“There aren’t enough firefighters, the shovels haven’t arrived,” Paco Clemente, a 33-year-old pharmacist, told the AFP news agency as he helped clear mud from a friend’s house.
Dozens of people have been arrested for looting, with one Aldaia resident telling AFP he saw thieves grabbing items from an abandoned supermarket as “people are a bit desperate”.
One of the contributing factors to the disaster was a lack of rainfall throughout the rest of the year, which left the ground in many areas of eastern and southern Spain unable to absorb rainwater efficiently.
The warming climate is also likely to have contributed to the severity of the floods.
In a preliminary report, World Weather Attribution (WWA), a group of international scientists who investigate global warming’s role in extreme weather, found that the rainfall which struck Spain was 12% heavier due to climate change and that the weather event experienced was twice as likely.
