Spain searches for bodies after unprecedented flooding claims at least
158 lives
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[November 01, 2024]
By ALBERTO SAIZ, JOSEPH WILSON and ALICIA LEÓN
BARRIO DE LA TORRE, Spain (AP) — Crews searched for bodies in stranded
cars and sodden buildings Thursday as residents salvaged what they could
from their ruined homes following monstrous flash floods in Spain that
claimed at least 158 lives, with 155 deaths confirmed in the eastern
Valencia region alone.
More horrors emerged Thursday from the debris and ubiquitous layers of
mud left by the walls of water that produced Spain's deadliest natural
disaster in living memory. The damage from the storm late Tuesday and
early Wednesday recalled the aftermath of a tsunami, with survivors left
to pick up the pieces as they mourn their loved ones.
Cars were piled on one another like fallen dominoes, uprooted trees,
downed power lines and household items all mired in mud that covered
streets in dozens of communities in Valencia, a region south of
Barcelona on the Mediterranean coast.
An unknown number of people are still missing and more victims could be
found.
“Unfortunately, there are dead people inside some vehicles,” Spain’s
Transport Minister Óscar Puente said early Thursday before the death
toll spiked from 95 on Wednesday night.
Rushing water turned narrow streets into death traps and spawned rivers
that tore through homes and businesses, sweeping away cars, people and
everything else in its path. The floods demolished bridges and left
roads unrecognizable.
Luís Sánchez, a welder, said he saved several people who were trapped in
their cars on the flooded V-31 highway south of Valencia city. The road
rapidly became a floating graveyard strewn with hundreds of vehicles.
“I saw bodies floating past. I called out, but nothing,” Sánchez said.
“The firefighters took the elderly first, when they could get in. I am
from nearby so I tried to help and rescue people. People were crying all
over, they were trapped.”
Regional authorities said late Wednesday that rescuers in helicopters
saved some 70 people stranded on rooftops and in cars, but ground crews
were far from done.
“We are searching house by house,” Ángel Martínez, one of 1,000 soldiers
helping with rescue efforts told Spain’s national radio RNE from the
town of Utiel, where at least six people died.
An Associated Press journalist saw rescuers remove seven body bags from
an underground garage in Barrio de la Torre.
“Our priority is to find the victims and the missing so we can help end
the suffering of their families,” Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez
said after meeting with officials and emergency services in Valencia on
Thursday, the first of three official days of mourning.
An ‘extraordinary’ deluge
Spain’s Mediterranean coast is used to autumn storms that can cause
flooding, but this was the most powerful flash flood 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 rapid but partial
analysis Thursday by World Weather Attribution, comprising dozens of
international scientists who study global warming’s role in extreme
weather.
Spain has suffered through an almost two-year drought, meaning that when
the deluge happened, the ground was so hard that it could not absorb the
rain, leading to flash floods.
The violent weather event surprised regional government officials.
Spain’s national weather service said it rained more in eight hours in
the Valencian town of Chiva than it had in the preceding 20 months.
A man wept as he showed a reporter from national broadcaster RTVE the
shell of what was once the ground floor of his home in Catarroja, south
of Valencia. It looked as though a bomb had detonated inside,
obliterating furniture and belongings, and stripping the paint off some
walls.
In Paiporta, mayor Maribel Albalat said Thursday that at least 62 people
had perished in the ommunity of 25,000 next to Valencia city.
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Vehicles are seen piled up after being swept away by floods in
Valencia, Spain, Thursday, Oct. 31, 2024. (AP Photo/Alberto Saiz)
“(Paiporta) never has floods, we never have this kind of problem.
And we found a lot of elderly people in the town center,” Albalat
told RTVE. “There were also a lot of people who came to get their
cars out of their garages ... it was a real trap.’
Farms damaged
While the most suffering was inflicted on municipalities near the
city of Valencia, the storms unleashed their fury over huge swaths
of the south and eastern coast of the Iberian peninsula. Two
fatalities were confirmed in the neighboring Castilla La Mancha
region and one in southern Andalusia.
Greenhouses and farms across southern Spain, known as Europe’s
garden for its exported produce, were also ruined by heavy rains and
flooding. The storms spawned a freak tornado in Valencia and a hail
storm that punched holes in cars in Andalusia. Homes were left
without water as far southwest as Malaga in Andalusia.
Heavy rains continued Thursday farther north as the Spanish weather
agency issued alerts for several counties in Castellón, in the
eastern Valencia region, and for Tarragona in Catalonia, as well as
southwest Cadiz.
“This storm front is still with us,” the prime minister said. “Stay
home and heed the official recommendation and you will help save
lives.”
Frustration brews as residents hunt for basic supplies
As the shock dissipated, anger grew over the authorities' handling
of the crisis, both for their late warnings of the looming floods
and the chaotic relief response.
Many survivors had to walk long distances in sticky mud to find food
and water. Most of their cars had been destroyed and the mud,
destruction and debris left by the storm made some roads unpassable.
Some pushed shopping carts along sodden streets while others carried
their children to keep them out of the muck.
Some 150,000 people in Valencia were without electricity on
Wednesday, but roughly half had power by Thursday. An unknown number
did not have running water and were relying on whatever bottled
water they could find.
The region remained partly isolated with several roads cut off and
train lines interrupted, including the high-speed service to Madrid.
Officials said it would take two to three weeks to repair that
damaged line.
And with emergency personnel focused on recovering the dead,
survivors were left to find basic supplies and clean up the mess.
Volunteers joined locals in moving wrecked vehicles, removing junk
and sweeping mud.
With local services clearly overwhelmed, Valencia regional President
Carlos Mazón on Thursday asked if Spain’s army could assist with
distributing basic goods to the population. The government in Madrid
responded by promising to send in 500 more soldiers, more national
police and Civil Guards.
But necessity — and the post-apocalyptic atmosphere — prompted some
to enter abandoned stores.
The National Police arrested 39 people for looting on Wednesday. The
Civil Guard said it detained 11 people for thefts in shopping malls,
while its officers were also deployed to stop people stealing from
cars.
Some people said they had to steal supplies, especially those who
have no running water or a way to get to stores that were not
wrecked.
“We are not thieves. I work as a cleaner at the school for the
council. But we have to eat. Look at what I’m picking up: baby food
for the baby,” said Nieves Vargas in a local supermarket whose doors
had been tossed aside by the water and was unattended by staff.
“What can I give to the child, if we don't have electricity.”
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Wilson reported from Barcelona, Spain, and Leon reported from
Valencia. Teresa Medrano in Madrid and Seth Borenstein in
Washington, D.C., contributed.
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