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.

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