The death toll from flooding in Spain has risen to more than 158, with the country declaring three days of mourning. Authorities are urging people to stay indoors as weather conditions worsen and the death toll is expected to rise.
An annual norm of rainfall fell in a few hours this week in the southern and eastern regions of the country, sweeping away cars, destroying homes and forcing residents to salvage what they could after horrific floods.
Cars piled on top of each other like falling dominoes, uprooted trees, downed power lines and household utensils, all buried in the mud that covered the streets of dozens of communities in Valencia, south of Barcelona on the Mediterranean coast.
Flags were lowered on government buildings and a minute’s silence was declared across the country after flash floods damaged Valencia’s infrastructure, washing away bridges, roads and railway lines and inundating farmland.
Survivors described torrents of bubbling water that turned narrow streets into death traps, rushed onto the ground floors of private and apartment blocks, and flooded garages and car parks.
Angry residents in several towns said mobile phone alerts did not arrive until 8 p.m. on Tuesday night, when serious flooding had already begun in some areas, and hours after that the national meteorological service Aemet declared a red alert due to exceptionally heavy rains.
Three-day mourning period declared
Most of the deaths were recorded in Valencia, with at least 155 people killed in that province alone. Angel Martinez, one of 1,000 soldiers helping rescuers, told Spanish national radio RNE from the town of Utiel, where at least six people have died:
“We are searching house after house.”
Part of the reason Spain has suffered so much devastating flooding is that the country has endured a two-year drought. As a result, the ground became too hard to absorb rain, leading to flash flooding.
A three-day mourning period was declared on Thursday and there will be a minute’s silence before all football matches in Spain this weekend.
Valencia’s match against Real Madrid was postponed due to the devastation that hit the city.
The intense rain is caused by the natural phenomenon of “Gota fria,” or “cold drop,” which occurs when cold air moves over the warm waters of the Mediterranean Sea, creating atmospheric instability that causes warm and moisture-laden air to rise rapidly, leading to heavy rain and thunderstorms.
Scientists say the human-caused climate crisis is leading to an increase in the duration, frequency and intensity of extreme weather events. Experts say warming in the Mediterranean, which increases water evaporation, is playing a key role in the increase in heavy rainfall.
Valencia Mayor MarÃa José Catalá says a policeman was among eight bodies found drowned in a garage in La Torre. In the same neighbourhood, she added, a 45-year-old woman was found dead in her home.
Emergency was “still unresolved”
Transport Minister Oscar Puente said about 80 kilometres of roads had been severely damaged or made impassable. He said many were blocked by abandoned vehicles, some of which “unfortunately had bodies inside.” He also added that it could take up to three weeks for the high-speed railway line between Madrid and Valencia to reopen. King Felipe VI warned that the emergency was “still unresolved.”
The death toll from floods in Spain is the highest since 1973, when at least 150 people were estimated to have died in the southeastern provinces of Granada, Murcia and Almeria. In 1996, 87 people died after torrential rain hit a campsite in the Pyrenees.
Europe’s most catastrophic recent floods occurred in July 2021, killing 243 people in Germany, Belgium, Romania, Italy and Austria.
