LAST UPDATE | 31 Oct 2024

THE DEATH TOLL from floods in the east of Spain has risen to at least 158 people.

Torrential rains that began at the start of the week brought about the deadliest flooding disaster in the country since 1973. Three days of mourning start today and the death toll is expected to rise.

Emergency services carried out 200 rescues on the ground and 70 aerial evacuations yesterday, said Valencia regional government chief Carlos Mazon.

President Michael D. Higgins has written to King Felipe VI of Spain to express condolences those affected by the floods.

“On behalf of the people of Ireland, may I express my deepest condolences to the families of all those who have lost their lives in the devastating floods which have occurred in Spain,” he said.

“May I further express my solidarity with the emergency services and other rescue workers who continue to work to save lives and provide vital assistance in the areas affected. All those who have been impacted by these terrible floods, and all those working around the clock to help them, will remain in our thoughts over the coming days.”

Taoiseach Simon Harris said this evening that he has been in contact with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and expressed Ireland’s “horror and sorrow” at the loss of life.

“The Taoiseach said the emerging stories of loss and injury are heartbreaking. Prime Minister Sanchez thanked the people of Ireland for their solidarity and kindness,” a government statement to media said.

“Ireland will help in every way we can, including through EU structures.”

The body coordinating rescue work in the Valencia region announced that 155 bodies had been recovered there by Thursday afternoon.

Officials in Castilla-La Mancha and Andalusia had announced a combined three deaths in their regions on Wednesday.

Walls of rushing water turned narrow streets into death traps and spawned rivers that ripped into the ground floors of homes and swept away cars, people and anything else in their path.

An Irish teacher living in Spain describes the scenes in Valencia as “something like The Purge”, referring to the Hollywood film franchise. 

“The neighbourhood is destroyed, all the cars are on top of each other, it’s literally smashed up,” said Christian Viena, a bar owner in the Valencian village of Barrio de la Torre.

Addressing a reception in Madrid, King Felipe expressed condolences to the victims and their families for the “catastrophic” event, which “as we have heard in the media is still not over”.

The devastation left by the floods has raised questions about how one of the world’s most developed nations failed to respond adequately to extreme storms likely to intensify as climate change accelerates.

National weather agency AEMET launched a red alert for the hardest-hit eastern Valencia region yesterday morning and conditions deteriorated throughout the day.

But it was only in the early evening that the regional body in charge of coordinating the emergency services was set up.

And an alert sent by the civil protection service urging residents of Valencia not to leave home was issued after 8pm.

For many, it was already too late. Motorists began journeys only to find themselves trapped on roads and left at the mercy of raging torrents of water.

People cross flooded streets in Utiel, Spain Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

Heavy downpours and fierce winds have lashed Spain since the beginning of the week after a storm formed over the Mediterranean Sea, with up to a year’s worth of rain falling in just hours in some areas.

Warning system

“They raised the alarm when the water was already here, there’s no need to tell me the flood is coming,” fumed Julian Ormeno, a 66-year-old pensioner in the Valencia city suburb of Sedavi.

“Nobody came to take responsibility,” he told AFP.

With weather forecasters issuing warnings beforehand, such tragedies are “entirely avoidable” if people can be kept away from surging flood water, said Hannah Cloke, hydrology professor at the University of Reading.

Torrential rain and flooding have killed at least 95 people in Spain’s eastern region of Valencia. The region received a year’s worth of rain in just eight hours in one of the deadliest weather events to hit the country https://t.co/dOCXYVg39M pic.twitter.com/Klpj0v7e8o

— Reuters (@Reuters) October 31, 2024

The devastating outcome suggests Valencia’s warning system failed, she said. “People just don’t know what to do when faced with a flood, or when they hear warnings.”

“People shouldn’t be dying from these kinds of forecasted weather events in countries where they have the resources to do better,” added Liz Stephens, a professor in climate risks and resilience at the University of Reading.

“We have a long way to go to prepare for this kind of event, and worse, in future.”

Experts have said the storm was caused by cold air moving over Mediterranean’s warm waters, which produced intense rain clouds, a phenomenon common for the time of year.

But they also say the warming of the Mediterranean, which increases water evaporation, plays a key role in making torrential rains more severe.

#DANA. 24 intenses hores intentant arribar, per via terrestre, aquàtica i aèria als màxims llocs possibles en escenaris inaccessibles i complicats
🎥 d'alguns dels rescats que ahir van realitzar els efectius @BombersValencia. En estos moments seguim treballant a tota la província pic.twitter.com/vlBqyoNK9m

— Bombers Consorci VLC (@BombersValencia) October 30, 2024

The events “are yet another wake-up call that our climate is changing rapidly”, according to Hayley Fowler, professor of climate change impacts at Britain’s Newcastle University.

“Our infrastructure is not designed to deal with these levels of flooding,” she added, saying “record-shatteringly hot” warmer sea temperatures fuel storms that dump extreme levels of rain in one place.

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Such extreme weather “can overwhelm the ability of existing defences and contingency plans to cope, even in a relatively wealthy country like Spain”, said Leslie Mabon, senior lecturer in environmental systems at Britain’s Open University.

“The floods in Spain are a timely reminder that no country is exempt from the risks of climate change.”

European Commission envoy Florika Fink-Hooijer said the “catastrophe” highlighted the link between biodiversity loss and human-caused climate change.

“If we act on biodiversity, we at least can buffer some of the climate impacts,” Fink-Hooijer said at a press conference in the city of Cali, host of the 16th Conference of Parties (COP16) to the UN’s Convention on Biodiversity.

“At this COP we really have a chance to act,” said the envoy, who is also the European Commission director-general for environment.

Residents walk next to cars piled up after being swept away by floods in Paiporta, near Valencia, Spain, Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

For Linda Speight, a lecturer at the School of Geography and the Environment at the University of Oxford, warnings for intense thunderstorms are “incredibly hard to issue” as the exact location of the heaviest rainfall is usually unknown in advance.

“We urgently need to adapt our cities to be more resilient to floods,” she added, suggesting making space for water to flow through urban environments without causing damage.

“We take preparation for other hazards such as earthquakes and tsunami very seriously,” added Jess Neumann, associate professor of hydrology, at the University of Reading.

“It is time we afforded the same to flood risk preparedness.”

Government minister Angel Victor Torres declined to answer directly when asked about the potential delay in sending alerts to the population.

‘Nothing left to save’

In the Valencia region town of Utiel, the storm dumped 230 mm of rain on Tuesday – three times the previous daily record, according to national weather agency AEMET.

That represented a quantity of water almost six times greater than what the area receives on average for the whole month of October.

“There’s nothing left to save, I lost everything in one night,” Utiel resident Emilio Munoz told AFP in front of his small red-brick house.

The pensioner in his 70s had just finished cooking when the water seeped into his home “and overturned everything”, with branches and leaves hanging from his dining room chandelier.

Diggers ploughed through thick layers of mud on the roads to allow rescuers to move through the town littered with uprooted trees and upended cars.

With reporting from AFP a Press Association