Rescuers on Friday raised the death toll in Spain’s deadliest natural disaster in living memory to 205 as the government deployed more troops in an increasingly desperate search for survivors.
Three days after historic flash floods swept through several towns in southern Valencia, the initial shock was giving way to anger, frustration and a wave of solidarity.
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 had already announced a combined three deaths in their regions.
Emergency services alongside more than 1,500 troops with helicopter support – particularly from the Spanish military’s emergency unit (UME) – have been arriving at mud-caked towns and villages to find survivors and clear roads of debris. Many streets are still blocked by piled-up vehicles and debris, however, in some cases trapping residents in their homes. Some places still don’t have electricity, running water, or stable telephone connections.
Residents have also 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.’
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 (AEMET) 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 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 channeled 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.
Infantes de Marina de @Armada_esp trabajan a pleno rendimiento en #Catarroja y #Torrent, en #Valencia, realizando, entre otras, labores de desescombro y reparto de alimentos. pic.twitter.com/u7umIZgz2s
— Ministerio Defensa (@Defensagob) November 1, 2024
Dos helicópteros CH-47 Chinook #FAMET @EjercitoTierra han despegado desde su base en Colmenar Viejo, #Madrid, rumbo a Valencia con provisiones para los afectados por la #DANA: agua, raciones de alimentos y ropa donada por Cáritas Colmenar. pic.twitter.com/H38c9W1iEr
— Ministerio Defensa (@Defensagob) November 1, 2024
Cuarta jornada en #Valencia, seguimos trabajando con la misma fortaleza e implicación.
El aliento de todos los españoles se suma al de sus Fuerzas Armadas @EjercitoTierra @Armada_esp @EjercitoAire y @UMEgob #DANA https://t.co/UaMRUsacBY pic.twitter.com/U5YkWwHYh7
— UME (@UMEgob) November 1, 2024
(12:54 h) ‼ Nuevo comunicado oficial de CECOPI:
◼️Desde que se activó el Procedimiento de Múltiples Víctimas volvemos a ofrecer un balance según los últimos datos confirmados por las fuerzas y cuerpos de seguridad
➡️En este momento, y de forma provisional, la cifra de…
— Emergències 112CV (@GVA112) November 1, 2024
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