Spain: Images of biblical disaster - Death toll expected to rise

Spain is still measuring the wounds left behind by the bad weather that hit mainly Valencia. At least 95 people died in the worst “disaster of the century” as the Spanish media called it.

The death toll after 7pm was 92 in Valencia, one in Malaga province and two in Castilla-La Mancha. Territorial Policy Minister Ángel Víctor Torres announced three days of mourning and that the government would declare the region “particularly affected” by the cold wave and promised to provide “every help” from the state and European funds.

The Ministry of National Defense has mobilized air assets, military psychologists and dogs trained to locate bodies. Dozens of people have spent the night in Valencia on top of trucks or cars, on the roofs of shops or gas stations, or trapped in their vehicles on congested roads until they were rescued.

The rain caused power outages affecting 115,000 people, road closures and the suspension of high-speed rail service between Madrid and the Community of Valencia and the Mediterranean corridor to Barcelona. The storm is moving towards Extremadura, southern Tarragona and western Andalusia, where Cádiz is on red alert due to the risk of water accumulation.

Shocking testimonials at MEGA

They are the people who live in the small Greek community of Valencia. Shocked, they describe to MEGA the absolute nightmare they lived through. “The sirens were ringing from the phones not to leave the house so we locked ourselves in the house, a message came to all of Valencia. From 11 to 6 the alarm rang.”

As businessman Panos Tsigaras tells MEGA, residents in Valencia are worried about their own people. Many are missing and communications are impossible. “My Spanish friends are missing, the police are looking for them, everything is blocked, there is not much drinking water, they have cut off the water in the southern suburbs, there is no internet, electricity.”

“Things are very tragic. Too many people have been lost. Almost all the rivers have flooded. Our relatives, our friends are trapped, and we are living this agony to see if we can contact them”, says Dimitris Vamvakas. Central road networks became torrential, dragging people and cars along the way.

“I saw with my own eyes a small part of the destruction, dozens of cars in the water, imagine if I told you in Attica that the Attiki Odos, Athens – Thessaloniki, Athens – Corinth became rivers and swept away trucks. There will certainly be several unfortunately missing people,” says Petros Orfanidis.

The water has reached a height of 2 meters. “I’m from Thessaly, last year we had what happened in Trikala and in our villages it’s nothing compared to what happened in Valencia, it’s a hurricane.”

Hundreds of people trapped in houses, cars, shopping malls, surprised by the floods caused by the torrential rains. “Only one of our friends, she tried, sent us a message that she is fine but she is in the ceiling of the house on the roof, some of our aunts are in a village, we cannot communicate at all,” says Dimitris Vamvakas.

Marousakis: “Spain is experiencing something similar to Thessaly

Clearchos Marousakis proceeded to analyze the phenomenon that Spain is experiencing. The well-known meteorologist compared the conditions prevailing in the Iberian peninsula to what we experienced in our country with the bad weather Daniel.

“The residents of eastern Spain are experiencing a phenomenon similar to what we experienced last year in Thessaly. An extensive area of high pressure has spread over central Europe, this is an atmospheric mountain that means it prevents bad weather from moving from west to east. At the same time, any waves of bad weather that have formed in the southern parts of this barometric high remain trapped for several hours and several days.”the well-known meteorologist initially reported.

He then analyzed the phenomenon by emphasizing: “Storm waves interact for several hours with sea areas, with warm sea surfaces, it is difficult to identify the areas that will release the largest volume of water. A cold mass and a warm mass are coming. They collide with each other and in combination with the sea create the extreme phenomena that hit Spain”.

“It poured as much water as it pours all year in Athens”

“Meteorological stations showed in the Siva region, west of Valencia, 450 millimeters, which means 450 tons of water per hectare. In Valencia they gave about 180-200 millimeters. We are talking about an extreme situation. In one year, these millimeters of water fall in Athens. From satellite measurements, it is estimated that around 200-300 mm of rain fell in parts of Spain. These systems are trapped and eddy over warm sea areas, resulting in a feedback loop, so we’ll continue to see phenomena over the next few days.”he noted.

“We will see similar phenomena again in Greece”

Finally, he pointed out that we will face the specific climate phenomena again in our country: “Climate change creates widespread anticyclones. We will also face these atmospheric mountains in the coming years in Europe and other regions of the world. The seas act as heat reservoirs, storing amounts of heat, so when these storms form they are likely to interact for several hours. It is almost certain that we will also face them in our region”.

What caused the floods in Spain?

The heavy rainfall was attributed to the gota fria, or “cold drop” phenomenon, which occurs when cold air moves over the warm waters of the Mediterranean.

This creates atmospheric instability, causing warm, saturated air to rise rapidly, leading to the formation of towering clouds within hours and dumping heavy rain in eastern parts of Spain.

The national meteorological service Aemet declared a red alert in Valencia and raised the alert to the second highest level in some parts of Andalusia. He also warned that the rains will continue at least until tomorrow Thursday (31/10/24).