A view shows a queue of vehicles in an area affected by heavy rains that caused flooding near Valencia, Spain.
| Photo Credit: NACHO DOCE

Some 93 people are listed as missing after devastating floods ravaged southeastern Spain over a week ago, killing more than 200, regional judicial authorities in Valencia said on Wednesday.

Valencia’s superior court of justice had on Tuesday listed 89 people as missing but said another four missing persons had been reported to law enforcement officers on Wednesday.

The worst floods to hit Spain in a generation have killed at least 219 people, mostly in the Valencia region.

That figure is expected to rise with many of the missing people presumed to have died, although the court said that authorities have not ruled out finding some of them alive.

Search and rescue operations on Wednesday targeted underground garages and waterways in the Valencia region.

The 15,000 police and soldiers deployed to the region have been helping clean up the devastation and repair roads and infrastructure.

Spain’s government on Tuesday announced an aid package worth 10.6 billion euros ($11.5 billion) to rebuild the devastated regions.

On Wednesday, the European Investment Bank also pledged 900 million euros to finance reconstruction in the affected regions.

vab/fjb/bc/giv

Cars and a campervan are strewn over railway tracks after being swept up in the recent flash flooding in the nearby municipality Alfafar on November 1, 2024 in the Alfafar municipality of Valencia, Spain.
| Photo Credit: Getty Images

Rescuers raised the death toll in Spain’s worst floods for a generation to 205 on Friday (November 1, 2024) and fears grew for the dozens missing as hopes of finding survivors faded.

The floods that have tossed vehicles, collapsed bridges and covered towns with mud since Tuesday (October 29, 2024) are the European country’s deadliest such disaster in decades.

The organisation coordinating emergency services in the hardest-hit eastern Valencia region said 202 people had been confirmed dead there.

Officials in neighbouring Castilla-La Mancha and Andalusia in the south had already announced a combined three deaths in their regions.

Rescuers equipped with helicopters, drones and sniffer dogs waded through water and rummaged through debris in search of dozens of people the authorities believe are still missing.

The government has deployed another 500 troops to the stricken areas to bolster the 1,200 already on site for search, rescue and logistics tasks. Another 500 will be dispatched on Saturday (November 2, 2024).

The Civil Guard alone had rescued more than 4,500 people as of Friday (November 1, 2024) afternoon, Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska said.

But three days on from the disaster, hopes of finding more survivors are dwindling.

The courthouse in Valencia city has been converted into a morgue, where health workers wearing smocks carried stretchers covered with white sheets.

‘People are desperate’

Some cut-off areas went without water, food or power for days after the floods began, and many roads and railways remain inaccessible.

Engineers worked to remove abandoned cars strewn over warped railway tracks and slabs of tarmac from destroyed roads littered inundated fields, AFP journalists saw.

French volunteers also announced their staff had arrived in Spain on Friday (November 1, 2024) bringing equipment to help clear debris, pump water and rescue victims.

In the devastated town of Paiporta near Valencia city, some residents complained aid was coming too slowly and frustrating the efforts of volunteers.

“There aren’t enough firefighters, the shovels haven’t arrived,” Paco Clemente, a 33-year-old pharmacist, said as he helped clear mud from a friend’s house.

Thousands of people remain cut off from the electricity and telephone networks, but it is hoped the estimated number of missing people will fall once connections are restored.

With several places seeing signs of order breaking down, government minister Angel Victor Torres on Thursday  (October 31, 2024) vowed an uncompromising response to looting.

Police said they had arrested 50 people for incidents including theft from vehicles and a jewellery store.

In the Valencia region town of Aldaia, Fernando Lozano told AFP he saw thieves grabbing items from an abandoned supermarket as “people are a bit desperate”.

“Until things return to normal and the supermarket opens, it’s going to be very bad here.”

Sports centres and schools were among the sites being used for emergency food distribution, Valencia region leader Carlos Mazon told reporters.

Wave of solidarity

An army of thousands of volunteers set off from Valencia on Friday (November 1, 2024) armed with shovels, buckets and shopping trolleys laden with food and nappies to help distressed neighbours in the city’s flooded suburbs.

Among them was Federico Martinez, a 55-year-old engineer who headed to help Paiporta residents clear their town of mud.

“We took what we had at home, and now it’s time to help. It’s emotional, it gives you goosebumps,” he told AFP.

Helpers also flocked to Valencia football club’s Mestalla stadium where volunteers formed human chains to collect mountains of essential supplies.

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez hailed “the limitless solidarity and dedication of Spanish society” on X and pledged aid “for as long as it takes”.

But the Valencia regional government urged people to stay at home, saying they risked holding up the emergency services rushing to the worst-affected areas.

Pope Francis expressed his solidarity with the victims and their families in Spain, historically a deeply Catholic country.

Sanchez will on Saturday (November 2, 2024) chair another meeting of a special committee made up of top cabinet ministers to follow the crisis.

Marlaska has been sent to Valencia to facilitate the cooperation between the central government and regional authorities in Spain’s highly decentralised state.

The storm that sparked the floods formed as cold air moved over the warm waters of the Mediterranean and is common for the time of year.

But scientists warn climate change driven by human activity is increasing the ferocity, length and frequency of such extreme weather events.

Madrid:

Rescuers raised the death toll in Spain’s worst floods for a generation to 205 on Friday and fears grew for the dozens missing as hopes of finding survivors faded.

The floods that have tossed vehicles, collapsed bridges and covered towns with mud since Tuesday are the European country’s deadliest such disaster in decades.

The organisation coordinating emergency services in the hardest-hit eastern Valencia region said 202 people had been confirmed dead there.

Officials in neighbouring Castilla-La Mancha and Andalusia in the south had already announced a combined three deaths in their regions.

Rescuers equipped with helicopters, drones and sniffer dogs waded through water and rummaged through debris in search of dozens of people the authorities believe are still missing.

The government has deployed another 500 troops to the stricken areas to bolster the 1,200 already on site for search, rescue and logistics tasks. Another 500 will be dispatched on Saturday.

The Civil Guard alone had rescued more than 4,500 people as of Friday afternoon, Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska said.

But three days on from the disaster, hopes of finding more survivors are dwindling.

The courthouse in Valencia city has been converted into a morgue, where health workers wearing smocks carried stretchers covered with white sheets.

 ‘People are desperate’ 

Some cut-off areas went without water, food or power for days after the floods began, and many roads and railways remain inaccessible.

Engineers worked to remove abandoned cars strewn over warped railway tracks and slabs of tarmac from destroyed roads littered inundated fields, AFP journalists saw.

French volunteers also announced their staff had arrived in Spain on Friday bringing equipment to help clear debris, pump water and rescue victims.

In the devastated town of Paiporta near Valencia city, some residents complained aid was coming too slowly and frustrating the efforts of volunteers.

“There aren’t enough firefighters, the shovels haven’t arrived,” Paco Clemente, a 33-year-old pharmacist, told AFP as he helped clear mud from a friend’s house.

Thousands of people remain cut off from the electricity and telephone networks, but it is hoped the estimated number of missing people will fall once connections are restored.

With several places seeing signs of order breaking down, government minister Angel Victor Torres on Thursday vowed an uncompromising response to looting.

Police said they had arrested 50 people for incidents including theft from vehicles and a jewellery store.

In the Valencia region town of Aldaia, Fernando Lozano told AFP he saw thieves grabbing items from an abandoned supermarket as “people are a bit desperate”.

“Until things return to normal and the supermarket opens, it’s going to be very bad here.”

Sports centres and schools were among the sites being used for emergency food distribution, Valencia region leader Carlos Mazon told reporters.

– Wave of solidarity –

An army of thousands of volunteers set off from Valencia on Friday armed with shovels, buckets and shopping trolleys laden with food and nappies to help distressed neighbours in the city’s flooded suburbs.

Among them was Federico Martinez, a 55-year-old engineer who headed to help Paiporta residents clear their town of mud.

“We took what we had at home, and now it’s time to help. It’s emotional, it gives you goosebumps,” he told AFP.

Helpers also flocked to Valencia football club’s Mestalla stadium where volunteers formed human chains to collect mountains of essential supplies.

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez hailed “the limitless solidarity and dedication of Spanish society” on X and pledged aid “for as long as it takes”.

But the Valencia regional government urged people to stay at home, saying they risked holding up the emergency services rushing to the worst-affected areas.

Pope Francis expressed his solidarity with the victims and their families in Spain, historically a deeply Catholic country.

Sanchez will on Saturday chair another meeting of a special committee made up of top cabinet ministers to follow the crisis.

Marlaska has been sent to Valencia to facilitate the cooperation between the central government and regional authorities in Spain’s highly decentralised state.

The storm that sparked the floods formed as cold air moved over the warm waters of the Mediterranean and is common for the time of year.

But scientists warn climate change driven by human activity is increasing the ferocity, length and frequency of such extreme weather events.

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

Volunteers and locals walk with supplies to help places affected by heavy rains that caused floods, in Paiporta, near Valencia, Spain, November 1, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Three days after historic flash floods swept through several towns in southern Valencia, in eastern Spain, the initial shock was giving way to anger, frustration and a wave of solidarity on Friday (November 1, 2024).

Many streets are still blocked by piled-up vehicles and debris, in some cases trapping residents in their homes. Some places still don’t have electricity, running water, or stable telephone connections.

Residents turned to media to appeal for help.

“This is a disaster. There are a lot of elderly people who don’t have medicine. There are children who don’t have food. We don’t have milk, we don’t have water. We have no access to anything,” a resident of Alfafar, one of the most affected towns in south Valencia, told state television station TVE. “No one even came to warn us on the first day.”

So far 158 bodies have been recovered — 155 in Valencia, two in the Castilla La Mancha region and one more in Andalusia — after Spain’s deadliest natural disaster in living memory. Members of the security forces and soldiers are busy searching for an unknown number of missing people, many feared to still be trapped in wrecked vehicles or flooded garages.

And as authorities repeat over and over, more storms are expected. The Spanish weather agency issued alerts for strong rains in Tarragona, Catalonia, as well as part of the Balearic Islands.

Meanwhile, flood survivors and volunteers are engaged in the titanic task of clearing an omnipresent layer of dense mud.

Residents in communities like Paiporta, where at least 62 people died, and Catarroja, have been walking kilometres to Valencia to get provisions, passing neighbours from unaffected areas who are bringing carry water, essential products or shovels to help remove the mud.

Juan Ramón Adsuara, the mayor of Alfafar, one of the hardest hit towns, said the aid isn’t nearly enough for residents trapped in an “extreme situation.”

“There are people living with corpses at home. It’s very sad. We are organising ourselves, but we are running out of everything,” he told reporters. “We go with vans to Valencia, we buy and we come back, but here we are totally forgotten.”

Rushing water turned narrow streets into death traps and spawned rivers that tore through homes and businesses, leaving many uninhabitable.

Social networks have channelled the needs of those affected. Some posted images of missing people in the hope of getting information about their whereabouts, while others launched initiatives such as Suport Mutu — or Mutual Support — which connects requests for help with people who are offering it; and others organised collections of basic goods throughout all the country or launched fundraisers.

Spain’s Mediterranean coast is used to autumn storms that can cause flooding, but this was the most powerful flash flooding in recent memory. Scientists link it to climate change, which is also behind increasingly high temperatures and droughts in Spain and the heating up of the Mediterranean Sea.

Human-caused climate change has doubled the likelihood of a storm like this week’s deluge in Valencia, according to a partial analysis issued Thursday by World Weather Attribution, a group made up of dozens of international scientists who study global warming’s role in extreme weather.

Spain has suffered through an almost two-year drought, making the flooding worse because the dry ground was so hard that it could not absorb the rain.

In August 1996, a flood swept away a campsite along the Gallego river in Biescas, in the northeast, killing 87 people.

Damaged cars are seen along a road affected by torrential rains that caused flooding, on the outskirts of Valencia, Spain, October 31, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Spain issued another storm warning on Thursday (October 31, 2024) for part of the Valencia region devastated by floods that have killed at least 95 people, as rescuers scoured flooded fields and stranded cars for those still missing.

Local authorities have not disclosed how many people are still unaccounted for after Europe’s deadliest floods in years, but Defence Minister Margarita Robles said late on Wednesday the death toll was likely to rise.

Rescue workers combed the wreckage of vehicles that were caked in mud next to roads or in flooded fields, with some using heavy machinery to clear debris from the streets, television footage showed.

Calm weather returned on Thursday to the hardest-hit areas around the city of Valencia, Spain’s third-largest, but the AEMET state weather agency issued its highest level of alert for the province of Castellon. Further north in the Catalonia region, an amber alert was issued for the city of Tarragona.

Meteorologists said a year’s worth of rain had fallen in eight hours in parts of Valencia on Tuesday, causing pile-ups on highways and submerging farmland in a region that produces about two-thirds of the citrus fruit grown in Spain, a leading global exporter of oranges.

The storm that caused the torrential downpours has since moved in a northeasterly direction.

“There are already very strong storms in the area, especially in the north of Castellon,” AEMET posted on its X account. “The adverse weather continues! Beware!” it added, saying people should not travel to the area.

The floods in Valencia battered the region’s infrastructure, sweeping away bridges, roads, railtracks and buildings as rivers burst their banks.

Residents described seeing people clambering onto the roofs of their cars as a churning tide of brown water gushed through the streets, uprooting trees and dragging away chunks of masonry from buildings.

Residents count losses

In the hard-hit rural town of Utiel, some 85 km (53 miles) inland from the city of Valencia, the Magro river burst its banks, sending up to three metres (9.8 feet) of water into homes, most of which are single-storey.

Utiel’s mayor, Ricardo Gabaldon, said at least six people had died in the town of about 12,000, most of them elderly or disabled people who were unable to clamber to safety.

Early on Thursday, residents used water pumps carried on tractors as they started the clean-up, with children helping to sweep the sidewalks.

“The sorrow is for the people who have died,” said Encarna, a 60-year-old teacher in the town, wiping away tears as she spoke in a flood-ravaged street near her damaged home. “These are my savings, my effort, my life. But we are alive.”

The floods have also wrecked crops and killed livestock.

Utiel residents Javier Iranzo, 47, and Ana Carmen Fernandez, 48, told Reuters the flooding had completely wrecked their pig farm, with 50 of their animals having drowned.

They estimated hundreds of thousands of euros worth of damages and, despite government pledges of help, said they worried about whether they would receive state aid to help rebuild.

Sedavi:

Rescuers raced Thursday to find survivors and victims of once-in-a-generation floods in Spain that killed at least 95 people and left towns submerged in a muddy deluge with overturned cars scattered in the streets.

About 1,000 troops joined police and firefighters in the grim search for bodies in the Valencia region as Spain started three days of mourning. The toll will rise because “there are many missing people”, territorial policy minister Angel Victor Torres predicted late Wednesday.

Up to a year’s rain fell in a few hours on the eastern city of Valencia and surrounding region on Tuesday sending torrents of water and mud through towns and cities.

Authorities said Paiporta, in the Valencia suburbs, had been devastated with about 40 people dead, including a mother and baby swept away by a torrent.

Rescuers have scrambled to get survivors off roofs with helicopters while others have searched houses some with water up to their necks. 

As dawn rose Thursday, tens of thousands of homes were still without electricity and drinking water and many roads were blocked by the carcasses of hundreds of cars and trucks swept away in sudden torrents. 

Emergency services carried out 200 rescues on the ground and 70 aerial evacuations on Wednesday, said Valencia regional government chief Carlos Mazon.

Valencia’s emergency services announced a provisional death toll of 92, adding that bodies were still being recovered. Two people died in neighbouring Castilla-La Mancha and another victim was reported in Andalusia in the south, officials said.

A sea of piled-up cars and mud swamped streets in Sedavi, a suburb of the Mediterranean city of Valencia, AFP journalists saw.

Stunned residents battled to clear sludge and water from their homes. 

‘Spain weeps’

In Ribarroja del Turia on the outskirts of Valencia city, town councillor Esther Gomez said workers were stuck overnight in an industrial estate “without a chance of rescuing them” as streams overflowed.

“It had been a long time since this happened and we’re scared,” she told AFP.

According to Spain’s weather service AEMET, Chiva, west of Valencia, recorded 491 mm of rain in just eight hours on Tuesday — almost equalling a year’s worth.

“All of Spain weeps with all of you… We won’t abandon you,” Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez told victims and their families in a televised address.

Sanchez was to head for Valencia on Thursday.

The disaster could not be considered over and “we will deploy all the necessary resources for as long as necessary so that we can recover from this tragedy,” he added.

King Felipe VI said he was “devastated” by the disaster and offered “heartfelt condolences” to families of the victims.

Damage to telephone networks and flooded roads hampered efforts to reach stricken communities but rescuers’ access to all urban hubs was restored by Wednesday evening, Mazon said.

Some 155,000 homes were without electricity in Valencia region due to the storm, energy company Iberdrola said.

The European Union activated its Copernicus satellite system to help coordinate Spanish rescue teams, EU commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said in Brussels.

The bloc has also offered to use its civil protection mechanism to send further reinforcements, she said.

Warning system scrutinised

Officials in the Valencia region announced survivors were being sheltered in temporary accommodation such as fire stations.

Rail and air transport remained severely disrupted. The high-speed line between Valencia and Madrid will be suspended for at least four days, the Adif rail infrastructure authority announced.

The flood toll is Spain’s deadliest since 1973 when at least 150 people were estimated to have died in the southeastern provinces of Granada, Murcia and Almeria.

Scientists have warned that extreme weather events such as the storm that hit Valencia are becoming more intense, last longer and occur more frequently as a result of human-induced climate change.

Such extremes “can overwhelm the ability of existing defences and contingency plans to cope, even in a relatively wealthy country like Spain”, said Leslie Mabon, senior lecturer in environmental systems at Britain’s Open University.

The heavy death toll came after warnings for extreme rainfall, suggesting Valencia’s flood alert system failed, said Hannah Cloke, hydrology professor at the University of Reading.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Velencia:

Floods triggered by torrential rain in Spain’s eastern Valencia region have left at least 51 people dead, rescuers said on Wednesday, as authorities scrambled to respond to the rare disaster.

Heavy rain and fierce winds have lashed southern and eastern Spain since the beginning of the week, sparking floods in Valencia and the southern Andalusia region.

The “provisional number of dead is at 51 people”, the regional emergency services wrote on X, adding bodies were still being recovered and identified.

“Several hundred people” remained trapped on two motorways in the region, according to the region’s fire service chief Jose Miguel Basset.

Parts of the Valencia region are without power with phone lines also down, and some places were cut off by flooded roads, regional chief Carlos Mazon told reporters.

Cars lay scattered and piled on top of each other on roads near the Mediterranean coastal city of Valencia after a mudslide, an AFP journalist saw.

Residents tried clearing the sludge from their homes with buckets and waded through waist-high waters in an attempt to save their belongings.

Maria Carmen, a resident of Valencia city, told Spanish public broadcaster TVE she climbed through her car window and sheltered on the roof of a van for hours to escape the floodwater.

King Felipe VI said he was “devastated” by the news on X and offered “our heartfelt condolences” to families of the victims, thanking emergency services for their “titanic” response.

The prime minister of neighbouring Portugal, Luis Montenegro, expressed his country’s “greatest regret” and “solidarity with all the Spanish people” in a message on X, offering “all necessary help”.

‘Unprecedented phenomenon’

The central government’s representative in the Valencia region, Pilar Bernabe, said emergency military response units were being sent from several regions to reinforce the rescue work.

Defence Minister Margarita Robles told reporters “more than a thousand troops” backed by helicopters were being deployed in the face of “an unprecedented phenomenon”.

Emergency services in the Valencia region rescued almost 200 people overnight who were being sheltered in fire stations, Basset added.

Footage showed torrents of water gushing through streets Tuesday washing away cars, while rail and air transport was severely disrupted.

The Spanish parliament held a minute’s silence on Wednesday to honour the victims before a usually raucous session of questions to the government.

The flood toll is the deadliest in Spain since August 1996 when 86 people died in the northeastern region of Aragon near the Pyrenees mountains bordering France.

Meteorologists have said the storm was caused by cold air moving over the warm waters of the Mediterranean Sea, which produced intense rain clouds.

The downpours are expected to continue until at least Thursday.

Scientists warn that extreme weather such as heatwaves and storms is becoming more intense as a result of human-induced climate change.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)