This is a historic catastrophe for Spain where three days of national mourning were declared after the floods. At least 158 people have died, according to the latest report communicated by the authorities this Wednesday, October 31. The Valencia region was the most affected, with 155 deaths.
But this total could rise even further. The Minister of Territorial Policy, Ángel Víctor Torres, estimated that “dozens and dozens” of people remained missing on Thursday night. “It is clear that as the days go by there is less hope of finding them alive,” he added.
“I never thought I would experience this”
This Thursday the sun returned, 48 hours after the tragedy, producing a marked contrast with the spectacle of desolation offered by all the towns in the area. In Paiporta, a town of 25,000 inhabitants on the southern outskirts of Valencia, at least 62 people died, according to the mayor, Maribel Albalat.
Still stunned, residents tried to clean the streets, covered in viscous mud, in an end-of-the-world scenario. “There is no business left standing,” said David Romero, a 27-year-old musician.
Visiting Valencia, the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, assured that the episode of bad weather “has not ended” and called on the inhabitants of this region to “stay at home” and “not go out.”
The Spanish leader was referring to the “red alert” (maximum alert level synonymous with extreme risk) launched on Thursday morning by the National Meteorological Agency (Aemet) for certain areas of the province of Castellón, located just north of that of Valencia, where heavy rains fell. However, the alert was lifted in the afternoon, turning orange. There are no more regions on red alert.
An additional 500 soldiers are deployed in the Valencian Community, in addition to the 1,200 already there. According to authorities, thousands of people are still without electricity in the region. “I never thought I would experience this,” said Eliu Sánchez, a resident of Sedavi, a town of 10,000 inhabitants on the outskirts of Valencia, recounting a nightmare night.
“We saw a young man in a vacant lot taking shelter on the roof of his car,” said the 32-year-old electrician.
A catastrophe amplified by climate change
Transportation is greatly disrupted and some roads remain impassable. The high-speed trains between Madrid and Valencia, suspended since Wednesday, will remain that way for at least “two or three weeks,” indicated the Minister of Transport, Óscar Puente.
The Valencian Community and the Spanish Mediterranean coast in general periodically experience, in autumn, the phenomenon known as “cold drop”, an isolated depression at high altitude that causes sudden and extremely violent rains, sometimes for several days.
In a first analysis, scientists from World Weather Attribution, a reference network that studies the relationship between extreme weather events and climate change, estimated on Thursday that “climate change is the most likely explanation” for the violence of bad weather in Spain. . According to this analysis, the torrential rains that hit Spain were 12% more intense and twice as likely as if the climate had not warmed.
Source: BFM TV