Spanish floods kill 64 as year of rain falls in a day in Valencia
LA ALCUDIA, Spain – At least 64 people have been killed in the deadliest flooding to hit Spain for three decades after torrential rain battered the eastern region of Valencia on Tuesday, October 29, leaving some areas impossible to reach, local authorities said on Wednesday, October 30.
Rescuers using dinghies worked through the night to scour the floodwaters, taking several people to safety in the town of Utiel, footage showed.
Meteorologists said a year’s rain had fallen in the space of eight hours in parts of Valencia, battering farms in a region responsible for almost two-thirds of citrus fruit grown in Spain, one of the globe’s top producers.
Denis Hlavaty told how he had spent the night trapped in the gas station where he works as the waters rose, and how other people had climbed on the roofs of their cars to survive.
“It’s a river that came through. The doors were torn away and I spent the night there, surrounded by water that was 2 meter deep. I stayed on the top of a shelf, the only one left as the whole gas station had disappeared,” he said, still in his mud-caked uniform.
Carlos Mazon, the regional leader of Valencia, said some people remained isolated in inaccessible locations.
“If (emergency services) have not arrived, it’s not due to a lack of means or predisposition, but a problem of access,” Mazon told a press conference, adding that reaching certain areas was “absolutely impossible.”
At least 62 people died in Valencia while authorities in the central inland region of Castilla La Mancha said the storm, which has swept through much of Spain’s Mediterranean coast, had left two people dead and several missing.
Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez promised to rebuild infrastructure that had been destroyed and said in a televised address: “For those who at this moment are still looking for their loved ones, the whole of Spain weeps with you.”
Dozens of videos shared on social media overnight appeared to show people trapped by the floodwater, with some climbing into trees to avoid being swept away. Footage showed rescue workers carrying several women in a bulldozer’s bucket.
“(The floods) took lots of dogs, took lots horses, they took away everything,” said Antonio Carmona, a construction worker and resident of Alora in the southern region of Andalusia. “Another neighbor got trapped in his car and we don’t know whether he’s ok or not.”
Trains to the cities of Madrid and Barcelona were cancelled due to the flooding, and schools and other essential services were suspended in the worst-hit areas, officials said.
Emergency services in the region urged citizens to avoid all road travel and to follow further official advice, and a military unit specialized in rescue operations was deployed in some places to help local emergency workers.
Some parts of Valencia such as the towns of Turis, Chiva or Bunol recorded more than 400 mm (15 inches) of rainfall, leading the state weather agency AEMET to declare a red alert on Tuesday.
As rain eased there, the alert was lowered to amber, but with the storm moving in a northeasterly direction, the regional weather service in Catalonia issued a red alert for the area around Barcelona, warning of high winds and hail.
Deadliest Spanish floods since 1996
The death toll appeared to be the worst in Europe from flooding since 2021 when at least 185 people died in Germany.
It is the deadliest flood-related disaster in Spain since 1996, when 87 people died near a town in the Pyrenees mountains.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on X that Europe was ready to help.
“What we’re seeing in Spain is devastating,” she said on X.
ASAJA, one of Spain’s largest farmer groups, said on Tuesday it expected significant damage to crops.
Spain is the world’s largest exporter of fresh and dried oranges, according to trade data provider the Observatory of Economic Complexity, and Valencia accounts for about 60% of the country’s citrus production, according to Valencian Institute of Agriculture Investigations.
Scientists say extreme weather events are becoming more frequent in Europe due to climate change. Meteorologists think the warming of the Mediterranean, which increases water evaporation, plays a key role in making torrential rains more severe.
“Events of this type, which used to occur many decades apart, are now becoming more frequent and their destructive capacity is greater,” said Ernesto Rodriguez Camino, senior state meteorologist and a member of the Spanish Meteorological Association. – Rappler.com