Rescue teams raced Thursday to find survivors and victims of once-in-a-generation floods in Spain that have killed at least 95 people and left cities inundated with muddy deluge, with cars scattered across the streets. Went.
About 1,000 soldiers joined police and firefighters in the search for bodies in the Valencia region as Spain began three days of mourning. Regional Policy Minister Angel Victor Torres predicted late Wednesday that the death toll would rise because “many people are missing”.
The eastern city of Valencia and the surrounding area received a year’s worth of rain in a matter of hours on Tuesday, flooding towns and cities with water and mud.
Authorities said the Valencia suburb of Paporata was devastated and about 40 people died, including a mother and child who were swept away by strong currents.
Rescuers have tried to pull survivors off rooftops with the help of helicopters, while others have searched homes, some of which are neck-deep in water.
As dawn broke on Thursday, thousands of homes were still without electricity and drinking water and many roads were blocked by the bodies of hundreds of cars and trucks washed away in the sudden torrential rains.
Carlos Mazzone, head of the Valencia regional government, said emergency services rescued 200 people on the ground and carried out 70 air evacuations on Wednesday.
Valencia’s emergency services announced a provisional death toll of 92 people, adding that bodies were still being recovered. Authorities said two people died in neighboring Castilla-La Mancha and another victim died in Andalusia to the south.
AFP journalists saw piles of cars and muddy roads in Sedawi, a suburb of the Mediterranean city of Valencia.
Stunned residents struggled to clear mud and water from their homes.
‘Spain cries’
In Ribarroja del Turia, on the outskirts of the city of Valencia, city councilor Esther Gomez said workers were trapped overnight in an industrial estate with “no chance of saving them” because streams were overflowing.
“It’s been a long time since this happened and we are scared,” he told AFP.
Chiva, west of Valencia, recorded 491 mm of rain in just eight hours on Tuesday – the equivalent of almost a year, according to Spain’s weather service AEMET.
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez told the victims and their families in a televised address, “All of Spain cries with all of you… We will not abandon you.”
Sanchez was scheduled to travel to Valencia on Thursday.
“This disaster cannot be considered over,” he said, and “we will deploy all necessary resources as long as necessary so that we can recover from this tragedy.”
King Felipe VI said he was “devastated” by the disaster and expressed his “heartfelt condolences” to the families of the victims.
Mazzone said efforts to reach affected communities were hampered by damage to telephone networks and flooded roads, but rescue workers had restored access to all urban centers by Wednesday evening.
Energy company Iberdrola said about 155,000 homes in the Valencia region were without power due to the storm.
EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said in Brussels that the EU had activated its Copernicus satellite system to help coordinate Spanish rescue teams.
He said the bloc has also offered to use its civil protection mechanism to send additional forces.
warning system checked
Authorities in the Valencia region announced that survivors were being sheltered in temporary housing such as fire stations.
Rail and air transport remained severely disrupted. The Edifice Rail Infrastructure Authority announced that the high-speed line between Valencia and Madrid would be suspended for at least four days.
The damage caused by the floods is Spain’s deadliest flood since 1973, when at least 150 people were estimated to have died in the south-eastern provinces of Granada, Murcia and Almería.
Scientists warn that extreme weather events like the storm that hit Valencia are becoming more intense, lasting longer and occurring more frequently as a result of human-induced climate change.
“Such extremes can overwhelm the ability to deal with existing protections and contingency plans, even in a relatively wealthy country like Spain,” said Leslie Mabon, senior lecturer in environmental systems at Britain’s Open University.
Hannah Cloke, professor of hydrology at the University of Reading, said the massive death toll came after warnings of heavy rain, suggesting that Valencia’s flood warning system had failed.
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