At least 72 people died in the deadliest flooding to hit Spain in three decades, after torrential rains hit the eastern region of Valencia, sweeping away bridges and buildings, local authorities said on Wednesday (30).
Meteorologists said a year’s worth of rain fell in eight hours in parts of Valencia on Tuesday, causing highway pileups and submerging farmland in a region that produces two-thirds of the citrus fruit grown in Spain, a top exporter. global.
Residents in the hardest-hit places described seeing people climbing onto the roofs of their cars as a choppy tide of brown water gushed through the streets, uprooting trees and washing away chunks of masonry from buildings.
“It’s a river that has flown,” said Denis Hlavaty, who waited for rescue on a ledge at the gas station where he works in the regional capital.
“The doors were ripped off and I spent the night there, surrounded by water two meters deep.”
Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez promised to rebuild infrastructure that had been destroyed and said in a televised speech: “For those who at this moment continue to search for their loved ones, all of Spain mourns with you.”
Footage taken by emergency services from a helicopter showed bridges that had collapsed and cars and trucks piled on top of each other on highways through flooded fields outside the city of Valencia.
Trains to the cities of Madrid and Barcelona were canceled due to the flooding, and schools and other essential services were suspended in the worst-hit areas, authorities said.
Energy company i-DE, owned by Europe’s biggest utility Iberdrola, said around 150,000 customers in Valencia had no electricity.
Emergency services in the region have asked citizens to avoid all road travel and follow official guidance more closely, and a military unit specializing in rescue operations has been sent to some places to help local emergency workers.
Some parts of Valencia, such as the cities of Turis, Chiva and Buñol, recorded more than 400 millimeters of rain, prompting the state meteorological agency AEMET to declare a red alert on Tuesday.
It was reduced to amber on Wednesday as the rain ended.
Flooding also occurred in other parts of the country, including the southern region of Andalusia, and forecasters warned of more severe weather ahead as the storm moved in a northeasterly direction.
The regional meteorological service in Catalonia has issued a red alert for the area around Barcelona, warning of strong winds and hail, while state agency AEMET has placed the city of Jerez in Andalusia on red alert.
“(The floods) took a lot of dogs, horses, everything,” said Antonio Carmona, a construction worker and resident of Alora, in the southern region.
Worst flood since 1996
It appears to be Europe’s worst flood death toll 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 are seeing in Spain is devastating,” he posted on the social network.
ASAJA, one of Spain’s largest farmers’ 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 Observatory of Economic Complexity, and Valencia is responsible for around 60% of the country’s citrus production, according to the 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, the state’s senior meteorologist and member of the Spanish Meteorological Association.
This content was originally published in The number of deaths due to floods in southeastern Spain rises on the CNN Brasil website.
Source: CNN Brasil
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