'It is all in ruins.' The shattered lives of Paiporta at the epicenter of Spain's floods
PHOTO ESSAY
JOSEPH WILSON
Updated Sat, November 2, 2024
People clean the street of mud in an area affected by floods in Paiporta, a town in the region of Valencia, Spain, Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
PAIPORTA, Spain (AP) — The pictures of the smiling toddlers on the wall somehow survived.
Most everything else in the daycare — the cradles, the highchairs, the toys — was ruined when a crushing wall of water swept through Paiporta, turning the Valencia municipality of 30,000 into the likely epicenter of Spain's deadliest natural disaster in living memory.
“We have lost everything,” Xavi Pons told The Associated Press. He said the water level was above his head inside what had been the daycare run by his wife’s family for half a century, and he pointed to the knee-high mark where the mud reached.
“I have lived here all my life. This had never happened and nobody could have imagined it woul,” Pons said. “All of Paiporta is like this, it is all in ruins.”
Authorities say at least 62 people died in Paiporta, of the 213 confirmed deaths from flash floods in Spain on Tuesday and Wednesday. The majority of those deaths happened in the eastern region of Valencia, and local media have labeled Paiporta the “ground zero” of the floods.
Four days have passed since the tsunami-like floods swept through the southern outskirts of Valencia city, covering many communities with sticky, thick mud. The clean-up task ahead remains gargantuan, and the hunt for bodies continues.
Many streets in Paiporta remain impassable to all vehicles but bulldozers, stacked as they are with piles of sodden furniture and household items and countless wrecked cars.
Every foot is caked with mud. Some people wield poles to steady their step as if walking these streets is a hike through a marsh.
A washing machine rests on its side among household junk in a church square. An enormous tree trunk rests inside a store that is missing a wall. An antique chests of drawers, paintings and a teddy bear, all still identifiable among the unrecognizable flotsam trapped in the all-consuming mire.
Lidia Giménez, a school teacher, watched from her second-story apartment as the usually dry canal that divides the town — “Barranco del Poyo” — went from completely empty to overflowing within 15 minutes. She called the aftermath of the flood “a battlefield without bombs.”
And it happened without a drop of rain falling on Paiporta.
The storm had unleashed a downpour upstream. That deluge then hurled toward Paiporta and other areas closer to the Mediterranean coast that were devastated by the flash floods.
Paiporta's residents received no flood warnings from the regional government on their cellphones until two hours after the dangerous waters rushed through.
The onslaught of water widened the river bank, tearing away buildings and a pedestrian bridge, stripping the metallic handrails from another bridge and pulling vehicles into the canal. Eight wheels are the only parts that remain visible of an overturned truck sunk in Poyo's muddy bottom.
The destruction could take weeks to clean.
Thousands of volunteers walked for more than an hour from Valencia city to help the people of Paiporta, carrying buckets, brooms and shovels as they waded into the grime.
Home owner Rafa Rosellón was waiting for heavy equipment to arrive to remove two cars — one half-resting on top of the other — that were washed away by the deluge and landed outside his home, blocking the front door. He had to unscrew a metal grating and slip though a window to get inside and witness the mess.
“I can’t do anything until those cars are moved,” Rosellón said. “The government forces that could do something, either from the regional government or the national government, have not done anything to help us. It’s us, the citizens and volunteers, who are doing all the work.”
Some 2,000 soldiers are involved in post-flood emergency work — searching for survivors, helping clean up and distribute essential goods — as well as 1,800 national police officers and almost 2,500 Civil Guard gendarmes. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said Saturday that they have rescued about 4,800 people and “helped more than 30,000 people in homes, on roads and in flooded industrial estates."
Only a small contingent of soldiers was pushing mud in Paiporta on Saturday, when Sánchez promised another 5,000 soldiers and 5,000 police were on their way to eastern Spain.
Just a few doors down from where Rosellón lived, a woman sweeping muddy water from her door burst into tears when asked what she had lost.
“I can’t find my husband, so all this doesn’t matter,” she said.
Another turn revealed a chilling scene; a street filled with half a dozen cars and criss-crossed with countless reeds that before the flood had been growing nearby. A man screams from inside a house: “There’s nothing more I can do! There’s nothing more I can do!”
___
Associated Press writer Teresa Medrano contributed from Madrid.
Nacho Doce and Eva Manez
Fri, November 1, 2024
Aftermath of floods near Valencia
Aftermath of floods near Valencia
Aftermath of floods near Valencia
PAIPORTA, Spain (Reuters) - Some came armed with mops and buckets, pick-axes or shovels, others carried bottles of drinking water and bags of food.
Thousands of volunteers of all ages, walks of life and different nationalities showed up on Friday in Spain's eastern Valencia region to help with clean-up efforts after catastrophic floods that have killed at least 205 people.
"To Paiporta, to help," answered a group of young men, walking briskly, when asked where they were headed, referring to one of the hardest-hit suburbs of the regional capital, Spain's third-biggest city.
"Wherever help is needed," one of the men added.
The show of solidarity was a bright spot amid the devastation caused by this week's floods, the deadliest weather disaster to hit the country in modern history.
The floods have battered Valencia's infrastructure, sweeping away bridges, roads and rail tracks, and submerged farmland in a region that produces about two-thirds of Spain's citrus crops like oranges, which the country exports globally.
Interior designer Nuria came from a distant suburb of the town of L'Eliana to help "with hard work and whatever I can do and with all my heart", she said.
Bart, a Dutchman who also lives in L'Eliana, said he had been touched by the solidarity shown by the many volunteers.
"It's amazing - thousands of people coming from Valencia, like a big corridor of people helping the victims of this incredible disaster," he said, as he headed to help.
Food brought by some volunteers was in hot demand.
"Nothing can come through, no food, nothing. The only thing that comes are the rescue trucks that can maybe bring a bit of food, but you need to walk 15-20 km (9-12 miles) to buy some bread," said Rafael Lopez, 59, who lives in a neighbourhood next to Paiporta.
Reme Montero, 59, said she wanted to help clean ground floor flats that had been flooded.
"The disaster motivated me to come," she said. "I'll do whatever they tell me to do."
By Friday afternoon, regional authorities thanked the volunteers profoundly in a post on X, but asked people to keep out of the worst-affected areas, saying large crowds of volunteers could complicate access for the emergency services.
JOSEPH WILSON
Updated Sat, November 2, 2024
People clean the street of mud in an area affected by floods in Paiporta, a town in the region of Valencia, Spain, Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
PAIPORTA, Spain (AP) — The pictures of the smiling toddlers on the wall somehow survived.
Most everything else in the daycare — the cradles, the highchairs, the toys — was ruined when a crushing wall of water swept through Paiporta, turning the Valencia municipality of 30,000 into the likely epicenter of Spain's deadliest natural disaster in living memory.
“We have lost everything,” Xavi Pons told The Associated Press. He said the water level was above his head inside what had been the daycare run by his wife’s family for half a century, and he pointed to the knee-high mark where the mud reached.
“I have lived here all my life. This had never happened and nobody could have imagined it woul,” Pons said. “All of Paiporta is like this, it is all in ruins.”
Authorities say at least 62 people died in Paiporta, of the 213 confirmed deaths from flash floods in Spain on Tuesday and Wednesday. The majority of those deaths happened in the eastern region of Valencia, and local media have labeled Paiporta the “ground zero” of the floods.
Four days have passed since the tsunami-like floods swept through the southern outskirts of Valencia city, covering many communities with sticky, thick mud. The clean-up task ahead remains gargantuan, and the hunt for bodies continues.
Many streets in Paiporta remain impassable to all vehicles but bulldozers, stacked as they are with piles of sodden furniture and household items and countless wrecked cars.
Every foot is caked with mud. Some people wield poles to steady their step as if walking these streets is a hike through a marsh.
A washing machine rests on its side among household junk in a church square. An enormous tree trunk rests inside a store that is missing a wall. An antique chests of drawers, paintings and a teddy bear, all still identifiable among the unrecognizable flotsam trapped in the all-consuming mire.
Lidia Giménez, a school teacher, watched from her second-story apartment as the usually dry canal that divides the town — “Barranco del Poyo” — went from completely empty to overflowing within 15 minutes. She called the aftermath of the flood “a battlefield without bombs.”
And it happened without a drop of rain falling on Paiporta.
The storm had unleashed a downpour upstream. That deluge then hurled toward Paiporta and other areas closer to the Mediterranean coast that were devastated by the flash floods.
Paiporta's residents received no flood warnings from the regional government on their cellphones until two hours after the dangerous waters rushed through.
The onslaught of water widened the river bank, tearing away buildings and a pedestrian bridge, stripping the metallic handrails from another bridge and pulling vehicles into the canal. Eight wheels are the only parts that remain visible of an overturned truck sunk in Poyo's muddy bottom.
The destruction could take weeks to clean.
Thousands of volunteers walked for more than an hour from Valencia city to help the people of Paiporta, carrying buckets, brooms and shovels as they waded into the grime.
Home owner Rafa Rosellón was waiting for heavy equipment to arrive to remove two cars — one half-resting on top of the other — that were washed away by the deluge and landed outside his home, blocking the front door. He had to unscrew a metal grating and slip though a window to get inside and witness the mess.
“I can’t do anything until those cars are moved,” Rosellón said. “The government forces that could do something, either from the regional government or the national government, have not done anything to help us. It’s us, the citizens and volunteers, who are doing all the work.”
Some 2,000 soldiers are involved in post-flood emergency work — searching for survivors, helping clean up and distribute essential goods — as well as 1,800 national police officers and almost 2,500 Civil Guard gendarmes. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said Saturday that they have rescued about 4,800 people and “helped more than 30,000 people in homes, on roads and in flooded industrial estates."
Only a small contingent of soldiers was pushing mud in Paiporta on Saturday, when Sánchez promised another 5,000 soldiers and 5,000 police were on their way to eastern Spain.
Just a few doors down from where Rosellón lived, a woman sweeping muddy water from her door burst into tears when asked what she had lost.
“I can’t find my husband, so all this doesn’t matter,” she said.
Another turn revealed a chilling scene; a street filled with half a dozen cars and criss-crossed with countless reeds that before the flood had been growing nearby. A man screams from inside a house: “There’s nothing more I can do! There’s nothing more I can do!”
___
Associated Press writer Teresa Medrano contributed from Madrid.
Spain floods: Before and after images show devastation
Sofia Ferreira Santos - BBC News and The Visual Journalism team -
Fri, November 1, 2024
[Google/Getty/BBC]
Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience.Generate Key Takeaways
Spain has been coming to terms with devastating floods which have left more than 200 people dead and dozens missing this week.
Thousands of emergency services staff and military personnel have been working on search and rescue operations in flood-hit regions, while locals have started to clean up and assess the level of damage caused.
More rain is expected over the weekend, with a warning in place along the coastline of Huelva in the south-west, where residents are being told to stay at home.
Before and after images show the scale of damage the flash flooding and torrential rain caused. Cars were swept onto streets, train tracks and tunnels across Valencia, the worst-hit region.
A large number of those killed were on the roads, in many cases returning from work when the flash floods struck.
[Google/Getty/BBC]
The above tunnel, which connects the Benetusser and Alfafar municipalities in Valencia, was blocked by a large number of cars dragged by the water.
Parts of Valencia, the country's third-largest city, had a year's worth of rain in just eight hours on Wednesday.
Dozens of metres of train tracks have been damaged or completely destroyed, with rail services suspended between Madrid and Valencia while tracks are rebuilt.
[Google/Getty/BBC]
Some streets and residential areas were wrecked as a result of flash flooding, such as this one in Letur, southwest of Valencia. The street is wholly covered by mud, rocks and debris.
Satellite images give an idea of how violently the water burst into coastal towns, and show just how much the landscape has changed in the last few days.
Spain hit by deadliest floods in decades. Here’s what we know
Sophie Tanno, Laura Paddison, Benjamin Brown, CNN and Pau Mosquera,
Where is the worst damage?
Spain’s eastern and southern regions often see autumn rain, but this year’s downpour was unprecedented. Most of the deaths occurred in Valencia, which is located along the Mediterranean coast and is home to more than 5 million people.
The flash flooding in the region, a tourist hotspot during summer months, saw rural villages submerged in water and rendered main highways unusable on Tuesday night and into Wednesday.
A courthouse was turned into a temporary morgue in the region’s capital, the city of Valencia.
Members of the emergency services work in a devastated street in the Spanish town of Letur, southwest of Valencia, on Wednesday. - Oscar Del Pozo/AFP/Getty Images
At least 40 people, six of whom were in a retirement home, died in the town of Paiporta in Valencia, Spanish news agency EFE reported, citing its mayor.
Trains have been suspended in Valencia, as have other major public services in other affected regions.
In Utiel, one of the worst-affected towns of the Valencia region, the suffering is palpable.
“My father is going to be 100 years old now and he doesn’t remember a flood like that. It was terrifying to be here,” José Platero, a 69-year-old resident, told CNN. “We found him looking for personal belongings near his home.”
On Utiel’s Avenida del Milagro, residents have been working together to remove muddy water from their homes, using brooms to help sweep out the mess covering their bedrooms and kitchens.
“I started by putting towels on the door so that the water wouldn’t get in. But suddenly the garage door burst open,” Carmen told CNN. “The scene was terrifying, as the mixture of water and mud began to occupy the kitchen with so much force, it knocked down the refrigerator.
“This has never been seen here,” adds Ángel, another resident. He showed CNN the state of his flooded home. “My finances are in tatters. If the insurance company doesn’t compensate us now, if they don’t take responsibility for the damage, we’re going to be in a very bad situation.”
Flooding was also reported in and around the cities of Murcia and Malaga with more than 100 mm (4 inches) of rain falling in some areas.
Speaking to CNN, one traumatized survivor said the flooding made him feel “powerless.”
“In half an hour, we lost almost everything… My wife had to carry my daughter in her arms when the water was almost chest-high to escape to a hotel.”
In Valencia’s La Torre neighborhood, where the water rose to chest level, volunteers were out on the streets Thursday attempting to clean up.
Rescue teams in La Torre discovered the bodies of seven people in a garage on Thursday, according to national broadcaster TVE, citing police.
Some of the local residents voiced their frustrations to a CNN team on the ground, saying that they did not receive a government alert warning that there would be a flood or even possibility of a flood until it was already happening.
What has the response been?
Five hundred Spanish soldiers have joined the operations in the Valencia region, bringing the total deployed across the country to 1,700, the Ministry of Defense said Friday. Some areas can only be reached by helicopter.
Valencia’s regional leader Carlos Mazon told reporters early Wednesday that bodies were found as rescue teams began to reach areas previously cut off by the floods. As of Thursday morning, emergency services said they had reached all the affected areas.
The Spanish government sent emergency alerts on Tuesday asking people to stay indoors or seek high ground. Extreme rain warnings were put in place for some areas including around Valencia, according to Spain’s Meteorological Agency, AEMET. These warnings called for the potential of 200 mm (8 inches) of rain in less than 12 hours.
In some locations, the rainfall estimates were exceeded in even shorter periods of time. Chiva, which is east of Valencia, received 320 mm of rain in just over four hours, according to the European Severe Weather Database. The Valencia area averages 77 mm (3 inches) for the entire month of October.
However, many people were caught off guard, leaving it too late for them to seek safety. Some took to social media to vent their frustrations, claiming that they received the emergency alert in the midst of the storm.
Hannah Cloke, a professor of hydrology at the UK’s University of Reading, said the high death toll suggests Spain’s regional emergency alerts system failed.
“It is appalling to see so many people dying in floods in Europe, when yet again weather forecasters had predicted extreme rainfall and issued warnings. The tragedy of people dying in cars and being swept away in streets is entirely avoidable if people can be kept away from rising flood water,” Cloke told CNN.
“This suggests the system for alerting people to the dangers of floods in Valencia has failed, with fatal consequences. It is clear that people just don’t know what to do when faced with a flood, or when they hear warnings.”
Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez offered support, pledging his government would do all it could to help flood victims, as he urged people to remain vigilant.
Damaged cars are seen along a road on the outskirts of Valencia on October 31, 2024. - Eva Manez/Reuters
The Spanish government has also decreed three days of official mourning, starting on Thursday.
Extreme weather warnings continue for portions of eastern and southern Spain, according to AEMET, with more rain expected.
Authorities issued a red warning overnight for the Huelva coast, in Andalusia, which had 140mm (5.5 inches) of precipitation in just 12 hours and continues to see intense rainfall on Friday. Orange and yellow alerts also remain in place in isolated parts of Valencia.
What caused the disaster?
The torrential rain was likely caused by what Spanish meteorologists call a “gota fría,” or cold drop, which refers to a pool of cooler air high in the atmosphere that can separate from the jet stream, causing it to move slowly and often lead to high-impact rainfall. This phenomenon is most common in autumn.
Climate change is the “most likely explanation” for the intensity of the downpours, according to a preliminary rapid analysis by scientists from the World Weather Attribution initiative. They found global warming, driven by fossil fuel pollution, made the torrential rainfall that hit Spain about 12% heavier and twice as likely.
“We are loading the dice of extreme weather in the worst way possible,” said Ben Clarke, a researcher at Imperial College London, and an author of the analysis.
A separate study from Climate Central found climate change also made the warm Atlantic Ocean temperatures that fueled the heavy rain 50 to 300 times more likely.
Hotter oceans provide more energy to storms, while warmer air is able to hold more moisture, soaking it up like a sponge to wring out in the form of torrential rain.
“In the context of climate change, these types of intense and exceptional rare rainfall events are going to become more frequent and more intense and, therefore, destructive,” said Ernesto Rodríguez Camino, senior state meteorologist and a member of the Spanish Meteorological Association.
How does this compare?
This week’s floods are the most deadly Spain has suffered in decades.
In 1959, 144 people were killed by a flood in the Spanish town of Ribadelago. However, that disaster was caused by the failure of a dam, releasing water from the Vega de Tera reservoir, rather than a natural event.
The last comparable natural disaster was in 1996, when floods killed 87 people near the town of Biescas in the Pyrenees mountains.
While Spain has experienced significant autumn storms in recent years, nothing comes close to the devastation wrought over the past few days.
This story has been updated with additional developments.
Lauren Kent, Atika Shubert, Madalena Araujo, Taylor Ward and Mauricio Torres contributed to this report.
Volunteers bring ray of light to Spanish towns shattered by floods
Sofia Ferreira Santos - BBC News and The Visual Journalism team -
Fri, November 1, 2024
[Google/Getty/BBC]
Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience.Generate Key Takeaways
Spain has been coming to terms with devastating floods which have left more than 200 people dead and dozens missing this week.
Thousands of emergency services staff and military personnel have been working on search and rescue operations in flood-hit regions, while locals have started to clean up and assess the level of damage caused.
More rain is expected over the weekend, with a warning in place along the coastline of Huelva in the south-west, where residents are being told to stay at home.
Before and after images show the scale of damage the flash flooding and torrential rain caused. Cars were swept onto streets, train tracks and tunnels across Valencia, the worst-hit region.
A large number of those killed were on the roads, in many cases returning from work when the flash floods struck.
[Google/Getty/BBC]
The above tunnel, which connects the Benetusser and Alfafar municipalities in Valencia, was blocked by a large number of cars dragged by the water.
Parts of Valencia, the country's third-largest city, had a year's worth of rain in just eight hours on Wednesday.
Dozens of metres of train tracks have been damaged or completely destroyed, with rail services suspended between Madrid and Valencia while tracks are rebuilt.
[Google/Getty/BBC]
Some streets and residential areas were wrecked as a result of flash flooding, such as this one in Letur, southwest of Valencia. The street is wholly covered by mud, rocks and debris.
Satellite images give an idea of how violently the water burst into coastal towns, and show just how much the landscape has changed in the last few days.
Spain hit by deadliest floods in decades. Here’s what we know
Sophie Tanno, Laura Paddison, Benjamin Brown, CNN and Pau Mosquera,
CNN en Español
Fri, November 1, 2024
Spain is reeling from its worst flooding in decades, after a year’s worth of rain fell in just hours this week in the country’s southern and eastern regions.
The storm began on Tuesday and has so far killed at least 205 people, including 202 killed in the worst-hit Valencia region, emergency services in the region said Friday, while dozens more remain missing.
The storm flooded towns and roads, caused rivers to burst their banks, and left thousands without power or running water.
“There are dozens of missing people. We cannot confirm that number. But it is clear that as more days pass and they do not appear, the more likely it is that we will have no hope of finding them alive,” Torres added.
Valencia saw its heaviest rainfall in 28 years with people caught off guard and trapped in basements and lower floors of buildings.
Emergency workers are still fighting to rescue those who are trapped, with operations underway to recover bodies and clear debris. Authorities warned Friday that roads have collapsed in some areas, with emergency services unable to get access.
Here’s what we know.
Fri, November 1, 2024
Spain is reeling from its worst flooding in decades, after a year’s worth of rain fell in just hours this week in the country’s southern and eastern regions.
The storm began on Tuesday and has so far killed at least 205 people, including 202 killed in the worst-hit Valencia region, emergency services in the region said Friday, while dozens more remain missing.
The storm flooded towns and roads, caused rivers to burst their banks, and left thousands without power or running water.
“There are dozens of missing people. We cannot confirm that number. But it is clear that as more days pass and they do not appear, the more likely it is that we will have no hope of finding them alive,” Torres added.
Valencia saw its heaviest rainfall in 28 years with people caught off guard and trapped in basements and lower floors of buildings.
Emergency workers are still fighting to rescue those who are trapped, with operations underway to recover bodies and clear debris. Authorities warned Friday that roads have collapsed in some areas, with emergency services unable to get access.
Here’s what we know.
Where is the worst damage?
Spain’s eastern and southern regions often see autumn rain, but this year’s downpour was unprecedented. Most of the deaths occurred in Valencia, which is located along the Mediterranean coast and is home to more than 5 million people.
The flash flooding in the region, a tourist hotspot during summer months, saw rural villages submerged in water and rendered main highways unusable on Tuesday night and into Wednesday.
A courthouse was turned into a temporary morgue in the region’s capital, the city of Valencia.
Members of the emergency services work in a devastated street in the Spanish town of Letur, southwest of Valencia, on Wednesday. - Oscar Del Pozo/AFP/Getty Images
At least 40 people, six of whom were in a retirement home, died in the town of Paiporta in Valencia, Spanish news agency EFE reported, citing its mayor.
Trains have been suspended in Valencia, as have other major public services in other affected regions.
In Utiel, one of the worst-affected towns of the Valencia region, the suffering is palpable.
“My father is going to be 100 years old now and he doesn’t remember a flood like that. It was terrifying to be here,” José Platero, a 69-year-old resident, told CNN. “We found him looking for personal belongings near his home.”
On Utiel’s Avenida del Milagro, residents have been working together to remove muddy water from their homes, using brooms to help sweep out the mess covering their bedrooms and kitchens.
“I started by putting towels on the door so that the water wouldn’t get in. But suddenly the garage door burst open,” Carmen told CNN. “The scene was terrifying, as the mixture of water and mud began to occupy the kitchen with so much force, it knocked down the refrigerator.
“This has never been seen here,” adds Ángel, another resident. He showed CNN the state of his flooded home. “My finances are in tatters. If the insurance company doesn’t compensate us now, if they don’t take responsibility for the damage, we’re going to be in a very bad situation.”
Flooding was also reported in and around the cities of Murcia and Malaga with more than 100 mm (4 inches) of rain falling in some areas.
Speaking to CNN, one traumatized survivor said the flooding made him feel “powerless.”
“In half an hour, we lost almost everything… My wife had to carry my daughter in her arms when the water was almost chest-high to escape to a hotel.”
In Valencia’s La Torre neighborhood, where the water rose to chest level, volunteers were out on the streets Thursday attempting to clean up.
Rescue teams in La Torre discovered the bodies of seven people in a garage on Thursday, according to national broadcaster TVE, citing police.
Some of the local residents voiced their frustrations to a CNN team on the ground, saying that they did not receive a government alert warning that there would be a flood or even possibility of a flood until it was already happening.
What has the response been?
Five hundred Spanish soldiers have joined the operations in the Valencia region, bringing the total deployed across the country to 1,700, the Ministry of Defense said Friday. Some areas can only be reached by helicopter.
Valencia’s regional leader Carlos Mazon told reporters early Wednesday that bodies were found as rescue teams began to reach areas previously cut off by the floods. As of Thursday morning, emergency services said they had reached all the affected areas.
The Spanish government sent emergency alerts on Tuesday asking people to stay indoors or seek high ground. Extreme rain warnings were put in place for some areas including around Valencia, according to Spain’s Meteorological Agency, AEMET. These warnings called for the potential of 200 mm (8 inches) of rain in less than 12 hours.
In some locations, the rainfall estimates were exceeded in even shorter periods of time. Chiva, which is east of Valencia, received 320 mm of rain in just over four hours, according to the European Severe Weather Database. The Valencia area averages 77 mm (3 inches) for the entire month of October.
However, many people were caught off guard, leaving it too late for them to seek safety. Some took to social media to vent their frustrations, claiming that they received the emergency alert in the midst of the storm.
Hannah Cloke, a professor of hydrology at the UK’s University of Reading, said the high death toll suggests Spain’s regional emergency alerts system failed.
“It is appalling to see so many people dying in floods in Europe, when yet again weather forecasters had predicted extreme rainfall and issued warnings. The tragedy of people dying in cars and being swept away in streets is entirely avoidable if people can be kept away from rising flood water,” Cloke told CNN.
“This suggests the system for alerting people to the dangers of floods in Valencia has failed, with fatal consequences. It is clear that people just don’t know what to do when faced with a flood, or when they hear warnings.”
Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez offered support, pledging his government would do all it could to help flood victims, as he urged people to remain vigilant.
Damaged cars are seen along a road on the outskirts of Valencia on October 31, 2024. - Eva Manez/Reuters
The Spanish government has also decreed three days of official mourning, starting on Thursday.
Extreme weather warnings continue for portions of eastern and southern Spain, according to AEMET, with more rain expected.
Authorities issued a red warning overnight for the Huelva coast, in Andalusia, which had 140mm (5.5 inches) of precipitation in just 12 hours and continues to see intense rainfall on Friday. Orange and yellow alerts also remain in place in isolated parts of Valencia.
What caused the disaster?
The torrential rain was likely caused by what Spanish meteorologists call a “gota fría,” or cold drop, which refers to a pool of cooler air high in the atmosphere that can separate from the jet stream, causing it to move slowly and often lead to high-impact rainfall. This phenomenon is most common in autumn.
Climate change is the “most likely explanation” for the intensity of the downpours, according to a preliminary rapid analysis by scientists from the World Weather Attribution initiative. They found global warming, driven by fossil fuel pollution, made the torrential rainfall that hit Spain about 12% heavier and twice as likely.
“We are loading the dice of extreme weather in the worst way possible,” said Ben Clarke, a researcher at Imperial College London, and an author of the analysis.
A separate study from Climate Central found climate change also made the warm Atlantic Ocean temperatures that fueled the heavy rain 50 to 300 times more likely.
Hotter oceans provide more energy to storms, while warmer air is able to hold more moisture, soaking it up like a sponge to wring out in the form of torrential rain.
“In the context of climate change, these types of intense and exceptional rare rainfall events are going to become more frequent and more intense and, therefore, destructive,” said Ernesto Rodríguez Camino, senior state meteorologist and a member of the Spanish Meteorological Association.
How does this compare?
This week’s floods are the most deadly Spain has suffered in decades.
In 1959, 144 people were killed by a flood in the Spanish town of Ribadelago. However, that disaster was caused by the failure of a dam, releasing water from the Vega de Tera reservoir, rather than a natural event.
The last comparable natural disaster was in 1996, when floods killed 87 people near the town of Biescas in the Pyrenees mountains.
While Spain has experienced significant autumn storms in recent years, nothing comes close to the devastation wrought over the past few days.
This story has been updated with additional developments.
Lauren Kent, Atika Shubert, Madalena Araujo, Taylor Ward and Mauricio Torres contributed to this report.
Volunteers bring ray of light to Spanish towns shattered by floods
Nacho Doce and Eva Manez
Fri, November 1, 2024
Aftermath of floods near Valencia
Aftermath of floods near Valencia
Aftermath of floods near Valencia
PAIPORTA, Spain (Reuters) - Some came armed with mops and buckets, pick-axes or shovels, others carried bottles of drinking water and bags of food.
Thousands of volunteers of all ages, walks of life and different nationalities showed up on Friday in Spain's eastern Valencia region to help with clean-up efforts after catastrophic floods that have killed at least 205 people.
"To Paiporta, to help," answered a group of young men, walking briskly, when asked where they were headed, referring to one of the hardest-hit suburbs of the regional capital, Spain's third-biggest city.
"Wherever help is needed," one of the men added.
The show of solidarity was a bright spot amid the devastation caused by this week's floods, the deadliest weather disaster to hit the country in modern history.
The floods have battered Valencia's infrastructure, sweeping away bridges, roads and rail tracks, and submerged farmland in a region that produces about two-thirds of Spain's citrus crops like oranges, which the country exports globally.
Interior designer Nuria came from a distant suburb of the town of L'Eliana to help "with hard work and whatever I can do and with all my heart", she said.
Bart, a Dutchman who also lives in L'Eliana, said he had been touched by the solidarity shown by the many volunteers.
"It's amazing - thousands of people coming from Valencia, like a big corridor of people helping the victims of this incredible disaster," he said, as he headed to help.
Food brought by some volunteers was in hot demand.
"Nothing can come through, no food, nothing. The only thing that comes are the rescue trucks that can maybe bring a bit of food, but you need to walk 15-20 km (9-12 miles) to buy some bread," said Rafael Lopez, 59, who lives in a neighbourhood next to Paiporta.
Reme Montero, 59, said she wanted to help clean ground floor flats that had been flooded.
"The disaster motivated me to come," she said. "I'll do whatever they tell me to do."
By Friday afternoon, regional authorities thanked the volunteers profoundly in a post on X, but asked people to keep out of the worst-affected areas, saying large crowds of volunteers could complicate access for the emergency services.
A woman stands in her house covered of mud in an area affected by floods in Paiporta, a town in the region of Valencia, Spain, Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)ASSOCIATED PRESS
People clean the street in an area affected by floods in Paiporta, a town in the region of Valencia, Spain, Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)ASSOCIATED PRESS
A street covered with mud and debris in an area affected by floods in Valencia, Spain, Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)ASSOCIATED PRESS
A man cleans the street of mud in an area affected by floods in Valencia, Spain, Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)ASSOCIATED PRESS
A doll covered in mud is pictured in an area affected by floods in Valencia, Spain, Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)ASSOCIATED PRESS
A teddy bear covered in mud is pictures in an area affected by floods in Paiporta, a town in the region of Valencia, Spain, Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)ASSOCIATED PRESS
The windows of a house affected by floods are pictured in Paiporta, at the epicenter of the floods, near Valencia, Spain, Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)ASSOCIATED PRESS
Children's drawings hang on the wall of a daycare center, showing the water level in area affected by floods in Paiporta, a town in the region of Valencia, Spain, Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)ASSOCIATED PRESS
The entrance of a garage in an area affected by the floods is pictured in Valencia, Spain, Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)ASSOCIATED PRESS
Cars remain submerged in mud in an area affected by floods in Valencia, Spain, Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)ASSOCIATED PRESS
People clean the street of mud in an area affected by floods in Valencia, Spain, Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)ASSOCIATED PRESS
The water level is visible on a wall next to some family photographs in Paiporta, a town in the region of Valencia, Spain, Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)ASSOCIATED PRESS
Mud covers the area after last Tuesday and early Wednesday storm that left hundreds dead or missing in Paiporta, outskirts of Valencia, Spain, Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024.(AP Photo/Angel Garcia)ASSOCIATED PRESS
Emergency service work in an area affected by floods in Valencia, Spain, Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)ASSOCIATED PRESS
People embrace each other in an area affected by floods in Paiporta, a town in the region of Valencia, Spain, Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)ASSOCIATED PRESS
Mud covers the area in the aftermath last Tuesday and early Wednesday storm that left hundreds dead or missing in Paiporta, outskirts of Valencia, Spain, Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024.(AP Photo/Angel Garcia)ASSOCIATED PRESS
Vehicles pile up in the streets after flooding caused by late Tuesday and early Wednesday storm that left hundreds dead or missing in Alfafar, Valencia region, Spain, Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024.(AP Photo/Angel Garcia)ASSOCIATED PRESS
People's belongings sit in the mud after floods in Massanassa, just outside of Valencia, Spain, Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Alberto Saiz)ASSOCIATED PRESS
Volunteers wait after thousands showed up to be assigned work schedules to help with the clean up operation after floods in Valencia, Spain, Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Alberto Saiz)ASSOCIATED PRESS
Vehicles pile up in the streets caused by late Tuesday and early Wednesday storm that left hundreds dead or missing in Alfafar, Valencia region, Spain, Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024.(AP Photo/Angel Garcia)ASSOCIATED PRESS
Vehicles pile up on the train tracks in the aftermath of flooding caused by late Tuesday and early Wednesday storm that left hundreds dead or missing in Alfafar, Valencia region, Spain, Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024.(AP Photo/Angel Garcia)ASSOCIATED PRESS
Food and water are given out to residents after floods in Massanassa, just outside of Valencia, Spain, Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Alberto Saiz)ASSOCIATED PRESS
Piled up cars block a street after floods in Massanassa, just outside of Valencia, Spain, Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Alberto Saiz)ASSOCIATED PRESS
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