The death toll from flash floods in Spain rose to at least 211 on Friday, with many more believed missing, as initial shock gave way to anger, frustration and a wave of solidarity.
Spanish emergency authorities said 202 of the victims were in the eastern region of Valencia, and officials warned that more rain was expected in the coming days.
The damage caused by the storm on Tuesday and Wednesday was reminiscent of the aftermath of a tsunami, and survivors picked up debris as they mourned loved ones lost in Spain’s deadliest natural disaster in living memory. Many streets were still blocked by piled-up vehicles and debris, in some cases trapping residents in their homes. Some places still do not have electricity, running water or stable telephone connections.
“The situation is incredible. A lot of disaster and very little help,” said Emilio Cuartero, a resident of Masanasa, on the outskirts of Valencia. “We especially need machinery, cranes, so that the sites can be accessed. We need a lot of help. And bread and water.”
In Chiva, residents were clearing debris from mud-filled streets. The Valencian town received more rain in eight hours on Tuesday than in the previous 20 months, and the water overflowed a ditch that runs through the city, washing away streets and homes.
The mayor, Amparo Fort, told RNE radio that “whole houses have disappeared, we don’t know if they have people inside or not.”
So far, 211 bodies have been recovered — 202 in Valencia, two in neighboring Castilla La Mancha and one in Andalusia in the south. Members of the security forces and 1,700 soldiers from the emergency unit are searching for an unknown number of missing people. Officials fear more bodies could be found in wrecked vehicles and flooded garages.
The Civil Guard has rescued more than 4,500 people trapped by floods, Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska said at a news conference from Valencia.
Regional authorities, who are in charge of the response to the tragedy, asked the central government to mobilize 500 additional soldiers, who will be deployed on Saturday.
Juan Vicente Pérez, a resident of Chiva, told The Associated Press in statements near where his house used to be that if he had waited five more minutes before evacuating, he would have died.
Before and after satellite images of the city of Valencia illustrated the magnitude of the catastrophe, showing the transformation of the Mediterranean metropolis into a landscape flooded with muddy waters. Highway V-33 was completely covered in a thick layer of brown mud.
The tragedy has unleashed a wave of solidarity throughout the country. During the morning, hundreds of residents have arrived on foot to the most affected areas, carrying water, essential products, shovels and brooms to help remove the mud. The number of people coming to help is so high that authorities have asked people not to drive or walk there, because they are blocking roads needed for emergency services.
“It is imperative that they return home,” said regional president Carlos Mazón, who thanked the volunteers for their good will.
In addition to voluntary contributions, local governments have begun to distribute water, food and basic products to schools, town halls and sports venues.
The Red Cross used its vast aid network to help those affected by the floods. Since Tuesday, it has carried out more than 3,500 interventions, half of them in 13 of the shelters established by the authorities, to distribute food, blankets and hygiene products, and to provide internet access.
“There will be quite serious consequences. We are going to find people who were already vulnerable more vulnerable and we are going to find new needs because there are people who have lost their livelihoods,” said Ana Gómez, spokesperson for the Red Cross in Valencia.
And more storms are expected. The sky in Valencia was partly sunny on Friday, but the Spanish meteorological agency issued alerts for heavy rain in the region, as well as on the coast of Huelva, Andalusia; Tarragona, in Catalonia; and part of the Balearic Islands.
The storm knocked out power and water services Tuesday night, but about 85% of the 155,000 affected customers had power back by Friday, the utility said in a statement.
“This is a disaster. There are many older people who do not have medications. There are children who don’t have (food). We don’t have milk, we don’t have water. We don’t have access to anything,” a resident of Alfafar, one of the most affected towns in the south of Valencia, told state television TVE. “No one has even come here to tell us on the first day.”
Juan Ramón Adsuara, the mayor of Alfafar, one of the hardest-hit towns, said the aid was not enough for residents trapped in an “extreme situation.”
“There are people living with corpses at home, that is very sad. “We are organizing, but we are running out of everything,” he told reporters. “We go with the vans to Valencia, we buy and we come back, but here we are totally forgotten.”
The rushing water turned narrow streets into death traps and created rivers that swept away homes and businesses, leaving many uninhabitable. Authorities have arrested 50 people accused of looting stores.
For his part, Colombian President Gustavo Petro lamented on Friday the death of the first Colombian identified among the victims in Valencia. He added, in a message from X, that there are 32 more Colombians reported missing, among the nearly 100,000 who reside in Valencia.
The Colombian Consulate in Valencia has received nearly 200 requests for assistance asking for the location of family members and humanitarian aid, the Foreign Ministry added. Petro ordered his officials to prepare to receive requests for humanitarian returns to Colombia.
Social networks have channeled the needs of those affected. Some posted images of missing people in hopes of gaining information on their whereabouts, while others launched initiatives such as Suport Mutu – or Mutual Support – which connects requests for help with people offering it. Others organized nationwide commodity drives and launched fundraisers.
Pope Francis offered prayers for “the deceased, and their loved ones, and for all helpless families,” as well as for rescuers working in Valencia during the traditional Angelus blessing on the Catholic holiday of All Saints.
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 the increasingly high temperatures and droughts in Spain and the warming of the Mediterranean Sea.
“Climate change is fueling extreme weather. “We can expect to see more of the devastation and despair we have been seeing this week as a warmer atmosphere brings more energy to our climate system,” said Clare Nullis, spokesperson for the World Meteorological Organization.
“As a result of rising temperatures, the hydrological cycle has accelerated. “It has also become more erratic, more unpredictable,” he added. “We face growing problems of having too much water or too little. And that is what we are seeing developing in Spain at the moment.”
Spain has suffered a nearly two-year drought, which made flooding worse because the dry soil was so hard it could not absorb the heavy rain.
In August 1996, a flood swept through a camp along the Gállego River in Biescas, in the northeast, killing 87 people.
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