At least 95 people have died in severe flash floods in Spain as emergency teams race to find dozens of missing people.
In the most affected region of Valencia, 92 people died, according to Angel Victor Torres, Spain’s minister of territorial policy and democratic memory. Two others died in Castile-La-Mancha and one person in Andalusia.
Several locations in southern and eastern Spain were hit by up to 300mm of rain in just a few hours on Tuesday (30), in what marked the worst rainfall in Valencia in 28 years, according to state meteorological agency AEMET.
Emergency services in Valencia, the city of Malaga and Castile-La-Mancha, among other regions, said they were still working to find dozens of missing people.
Emiliano García-Page, president of the regional government of Castile-La-Mancha, compared the flood to the collapse of a dike. “It wasn’t torrential rain, it was like a dam breaking,” García-Page told Spanish national broadcaster TVE. “People were calling [para números de emergência] crying, asking for help and it was almost impossible to reach them.”
The badly hit Valencia region was thrown into a state of chaos, with most highways becoming completely unusable on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. Vehicles that were abandoned in traffic were washed away.
A courtroom has been turned into a temporary morgue in the regional capital, also called Valencia, local officials said, as the death toll is expected to rise.
At least 40 people, six of whom were in a nursing home, died in the Valencia town of Paiporta, Spanish state news agency EFE reported, citing its mayor.
Videos posted by several rescue agencies on Wednesday showed entire streets flooded, people trapped on rooftops and cars piled up and overturned.
Around 1,200 people are believed to still be trapped on different parts of a highway in Valencia, and 5,000 vehicles are blocked as a result of flood waters, EFE reported, citing Spain’s Civil Guard.
Trains were suspended in the Valencia region, as were other important public services in other affected regions. Schools, museums and public libraries in the Valencia region will be closed this Thursday, according to the local government.
In Málaga, in the Andalusia region, a 71-year-old British man died of hypothermia, according to the city’s mayor, Francisco de la Torre.
“We don’t know where our parents are”
Survivors and families of the missing spoke to TVE about the terrifying rain. “It was agonizing. When we saw the water rising and reaching the first floor of the house, we went to the roof,” a resident told TVE. “We stayed on the roof until 4 in the morning. We didn’t have water, we were cold. Finally, the helicopter arrived.”
“Everything is destroyed, but at least we are here to tell you [a história],” she added.
Petruta Sandu’s family was also caught by surprise by the flash flood. She last spoke to her parents Tuesday night, when they were trapped on the roof of their car as waters rose around them.
“Since 10pm last night, we haven’t known anything about our parents,” she told TVE. “My brother-in-law walked almost 7 km in knee-deep water to find the helicopter and find the vehicle, but they didn’t find anyone. We don’t know where our parents are.”
In cities close to rivers such as Utiel or Paiporta, water spilled onto the streets, the city reported. CNN . Vans, cars and garbage cans were carried away by the currents, which in some cases reached the first floor of buildings.
AEMET reports that the “cold drop” that caused the flooding is the worst Valencia has experienced this century, but adds that it is too early to say whether climate change is to blame. The term “cold drop” refers to a pool of cooler air high in the atmosphere that can separate from the jet stream, causing it to move slowly and often leading to high-impact rain events. The phenomenon is more common in autumn.
The large amount of rain that fell caused many to be caught off guard, with people becoming trapped in their basements or first floors and unable to get to safety.
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said on Wednesday that his government would use all means necessary to help flood victims, while urging people to remain vigilant. He is expected to visit Valencia this Thursday.
Defense Minister Margarita Robles described the flooding as an “unprecedented phenomenon,” the news agency reported. CNN . Robles said more than 1,000 members of the military have been mobilized to help with rescue efforts.
The Spanish government has declared three days of official mourning for flood victims, starting on Thursday.
A local resident of one of the affected cities, Antonio Carmona, described to CNN what happened when the floods arrived. “When we looked here, we saw everything going down. (The water) took away cars, knocked down half of one of our neighbors’ houses.”
Carmona pointed to his torn clothes, saying he and others were saving dogs caught in the flood.
A woman named Beatriz Garrote was driving home from work in the Valencia town of Torrent on Tuesday night when she found herself stuck on a section of the ring road by rising water for several hours alongside other drivers, according to with the Spanish newspaper El Pais.
“I passed the first exit, which was to Paiporta, but it was closed because they told us that the city was flooded and we couldn’t leave,” she said, El Pais reported. She said her car then got stuck “and suddenly the two lanes closest to the exit started flooding.”
She described feeling “very scared” as water levels quickly rose. “I didn’t know where it was coming from or what was going on. The water started to rise very quickly.
“After 10 minutes, I was halfway around the wheel of the car. One of the volunteers told us to turn the cars around, but there was no way out.”
The human-caused climate crisis is making extreme weather more frequent and severe, scientists say.
As the world warms due to fossil fuel pollution, the most intense rain events are getting heavier and more frequent. Warmer oceans fuel stronger storms, and a warmer atmosphere can hold more moisture, which it extracts in the form of torrential rain.
Rain warnings continue until Wednesday for parts of eastern and southern Spain, according to AEMET, with the threat of heavy rain expected to continue until the end of the week.
This content was originally published in Authorities confirm 95 deaths in floods in Spain; number should rise on the CNN Brasil website.
Source: CNN Brasil
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