At least 95 people are dead in Spain due to the floods that swept the eastern country yesterday, according to the latest tally of the local authorities.
Territorial Policy Minister Angel Victor Torres told state television TVE that 92 deaths were recorded in the Valenciawhich is the worst hit area. Two deaths were reported in neighboring Castilla-La Mancha and one in Andalusia.
These are the deadliest floods to hit the Iberian country in almost three decades, causing chaos in several communities.
The Spanish government has announced three days of national mourning from today Thursday to Saturday.
Watch video of the deadly floods in Valencia
The warning of the meteorologists and the late 112
The National Meteorological Service AEMET issued a red alert for Valencia on Tuesday morning, with conditions worsening during the day.
However, the regional agency for the coordination of civil protection was formed in the afternoon. The warning from the civil protection for the residents of Valencia to stay in their homes was issued after 8 pm, when the situation was already critical, which has caused anger and strong reactions.
In the crosshairs is the president of the government of Valencia, Carlos Mazon. The conservative Mazon is accused by his political opponents, the media and citizens on social networks that the first “job” he did when he was elected, last year, was to abolish the UVE. This is the Emergency Unit of Valencia, which was created by the previous local government to respond to climatic disasters such as floods and fires.
Is climate change responsible?
The deadly floods that have killed at least 95 people in Spain were caused by a catastrophic weather phenomenon in which cold and warm air meet to create heavy rain clouds, a pattern believed to be occurring more often due to climate change.
The phenomenon is known locally as DANAa Spanish acronym for isolated high-altitude trough, and unlike common storms or gales, can form independently of polar or subtropical air masses.
When cold air blows over warm Mediterranean waters, it causes warmer air to rise quickly and form dense, water-filled clouds that can stay in the same area for hours, increasing their destructive potential.
The phenomenon sometimes causes heavy hail and tornadoes as seen this week, forecasters say.
Eastern and southern Spain are particularly sensitive to the phenomenon due to their location between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean. Warm, moist air masses and cold masses meet in an area where mountains favor the formation of storm clouds and precipitation.
The “gota fria” (cold drop)
This week’s DANA was one of the three most intense such storms in the past century in the Valencia area, said Ruben del Camporepresentative of the national meteorological service Aemet.
“The predictions were in line with what happened. But in an area between Utiel and Chiva in the province of Valencia, rainfall exceeded 300 liters per square meter. In this region, storm systems were constantly forming and re-forming,” he explained.
While experts say it will take time to analyze all the data to determine whether this particular DANA was caused by climate change, most agree that rising temperatures in the Mediterranean and warmer, wetter atmospheric conditions are helping to create more frequent extreme events .
“We can’t say anything for sure, except that in the context of climate change, these types of events will be more frequent and more intense,” said Spanish meteorologist and researcher Dr. Ernesto Rodriguez Camino.
Before the term DANA was coined in the early 2000s, any heavy autumn rainfall characteristic of the Mediterranean climate was popularly called “gota fria” (cold drop) in Spain and parts of France. The term is still widely used colloquially.
Its origins date back to 1886 when German scientists introduced the concept of ‘kaltlufttropfen’, or cold air drop, to describe turbulence at high altitude but without apparent surface reflection.
Aemet says the concept of cold drops is outdated and defines DANA as a high-altitude closed trough that has become isolated and separated from an associated airstream. Aemet says that DANAs sometimes stand still or even move backwards, from east to west.
Three days of national mourning
Since yesterday, their bodies have already started to arrive at the Valencia courthouse in the afternoon, as reported by ERT.
A makeshift morgue has been set up behind this mansion and from tomorrow the relatives of the victims will be invited to be there to identify their loved ones.
Of course, there will be many groups of psychologists for similar support, but of course no one can give this same support to this whole world that is looking for friends and acquaintances and relatives – the number of missing persons is unknown.
“Water everywhere, it’s a tragedy”
Rescue crews with the help of the Army are racing against time to reach the affected areas, where the water in places exceeds 3 meters. Houses, roads and bridges have been destroyed by the rapid torrents that formed in a short time, while electricity and telecommunications have been interrupted.
The correspondent of ERTNews in Spain, Dora Makri, in the afternoon (30/10) tried to cover the 300 kilometers of the Madrid-Valencia distance, but it was impossible to go all the way, since, due to the conditions, the area is blocked for security reasons.
As she described, 150,000 houses are without electricity and without communication (…) The number of missing persons is very high. None of the Authorities has so far specified or mentioned any number.
Like 1957
It is recalled that something similar had happened in Spain in 1957, when 81 people lost their lives.
Although in Spain the direct intervention of the state is also known when it comes to natural disasters in general, in this case it was different because within a very few hours, 400 liters fell per square meter, as the experts say.
Fears of an increase in the dead – many trapped
Southeast Spain is on red alert. From Malaga to Valencia, deadly floods and heavy hail caused chaos and massive destruction. Dozens of people spent the night on the roofs of their cars and on the roofs of houses and shops, waiting for rescue crews.
Some were rescued with the help of helicopters, among them small children. Using lifeboats, rescuers pulled hundreds of people from their flooded homes while rescue crews scrambled to reach cordoned off areas.
As reported by Spanish media, there are many who remain trapped, with the authorities speaking of a large number of missing people, while fears are expressed that the number of dead will increase.
Source ERT, APE-MPE, ertnews.gr
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