At least 62 dead in 'terrific' floods in Spain

Photo: Jose Jordan Agence France-Presse In Picanya, near Valencia, cars piled up in the wake of a flood.

Agence France-Presse in Valencia

Published at 7:36 a.m. Updated at 8:40 a.m.

• Europe

At least 62 people have died in dramatic floods that devastated southeastern Spain on Tuesday night, wreaking havoc in many villages cut off from the rest of the country, which rescue workers are struggling to reach on Wednesday.

“At present, and provisionally, the number of fatal victims has reached 62 people,” the official body coordinating the rescue operations announced at midday on Wednesday. But “the process of counting and identifying the victims is continuing,” it said.

This figure is likely to change and the authorities have opened a telephone line reserved for people looking for missing relatives. This is the case, for example, of Jessica Sandoval, who explained on national television TVE that she has no news of her brother in Valencia.

In a brief televised address, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez expressed his support for the families of the victims and those affected. “We will not leave you alone,” he promised, asking residents to remain vigilant.

“We cannot consider this devastating episode to be over,” Mr. Sánchez stressed. There are “flooded communities, roads and tracks cut off, bridges broken by the violence of the waters,” he recalled, with many localities remaining inaccessible.

Photo: Jose Jordan Agence France-Presse The damage is very serious in Picanya, near Valencia.

“Never seen anything like it”

“The situation is terrible,” Defense Minister Margarita Robles told reporters, adding that a thousand soldiers, supported by helicopters, were in the area to help rescue services.

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Among the worst-hit municipalities are L'Alcudia, in the Valencia region, and Letur, in the neighboring province of Albacete, where six people are missing after the flash floods swept through the streets and swept away cars.

“The situation is dire […] I have never seen anything like it,” Consuelo Tarazona, the mayor of Horno de Alcedo, a suburb of Valencia, told TVE. The rise in water levels was “monstrous,” she said. “We were flooded all of a sudden, without being able to warn the neighbors.”

The authorities have asked residents not to travel by road, while the central government has set up a crisis unit.

“There are still difficulties accessing certain sites, which means that we do not yet have complete data on the impact” of the storms, warned King Felipe VI of Spain in a short speech. The sovereign said he was “devastated” in a message on X, earlier in the morning.

Photo: Jorge Guerrero Agence France-Presse The torrential rains also caused damage in Alora, near Malaga.

“Cold drop”

Valencia City Hall announced that all schools would remain closed on Wednesday and that all sporting events were cancelled. Several flights scheduled to take off from or land at Valencia airport have been diverted or cancelled, according to Spanish airport operator Aena.

National rail infrastructure operator Adif suspended trains between Madrid and Valencia for the whole of Wednesday due to the storm's effects on key points on the rail network.

A high-speed train carrying 276 passengers derailed on Tuesday afternoon due to bad weather in Andalusia, without causing any injuries, according to the regional government.

The national weather agency Aemet had placed the Valencia region on red alert on Tuesday night and declared the second-highest alert level in parts of Andalusia, warning that the rains would continue until at least Thursday.

The Valencia region and the Spanish Mediterranean coast in general regularly experience, in autumn, the so-called “gota fria” (the “cold drop”) phenomenon, an isolated depression at high altitude that causes sudden and extremely violent rains, sometimes lasting several days.

Scientists have been warning for several years that extreme weather events such as heat waves and storms are becoming more frequent, longer lasting and more intense due to climate change.

“These flash floods in Spain are another terrible reminder of climate change and its chaotic nature,” Jess Neumann, professor of hydrology at the University of Reading in the United Kingdom, said in a note.

These disasters can now affect “anyone, anywhere”: “we need to think seriously about how to better design our landscapes, our towns and our cities,” he warned.