Spanish residents appeal for help, 3 days after historic floods left at least 158 dead

Volunteers and locals walk with supplies to help places affected by flooding due to heavy rain in Paporta, near Valencia, Spain, on November 1, 2024. Photo courtesy: Reuters

three days later Historic flash floods hit several cities in southern ValenciaIn eastern Spain, the initial shock sparked a wave of anger, frustration and solidarity on Friday (November 1, 2024).

Many roads are still blocked by vehicle piles and debris, in some cases stranding residents in their homes. Some places still do not have electricity, running water or stable telephone connections.

Residents turn to media to appeal for help,

“It’s a disaster. There are a lot of elderly people who don’t have medicine. There are children who don’t have food. We have no milk, no water.” “We don’t have access to anything,” the resident told state television station TVE. “The first day no one even came to warn us.”

158 bodies have so far been recovered following Spain’s deadliest natural disaster in living memory – 155 in Valencia, two in the Castilla la Mancha region and another in Andalusia. Security forces members and soldiers Search is underway for an unknown number of missing people.Many people are still feared trapped in damaged vehicles or flooded garages.

And as officials have repeatedly reiterated, more storms are expected. The Spanish weather agency issued an alert for heavy rain in Tarragona, Catalonia as well as parts of the Balearic Islands.

Meanwhile, flood survivors and volunteers are engaged in the mammoth task of clearing the ubiquitous layer of dense mud.

Residents of communities such as Paporata, where at least 62 people died, and Catarosa, have been walking several kilometers to Valencia to get provisions, passing by neighbors from unaffected areas who came to help remove the mud. Bringing water, essential products or shovels.

Juan Ramon Adesuara, mayor of Alfafar, one of the worst-hit cities, said aid was not enough for residents trapped in an “extreme situation.”

“People at home are living with dead bodies. This is very sad. We are organizing ourselves, but we are running out of everything,” he told reporters. “We go to Valencia with the van, we buy and we come back, but here we completely forget. Have gone.”

The rushing water turned narrow streets into death traps and created rivers that washed away homes and businesses, rendering many uninhabitable.

Social networks have met the needs of those affected. Some people posted photos of missing people in the hope of finding information about their whereabouts, while others started initiatives like Suport Mutu – or Mutual Support – which connects requests for help with people who are offering it. ; And others organized collections of basic items or started fundraising across the country.

Spain’s Mediterranean coast is accustomed 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 rising high temperatures and drought in Spain and the warming of the Mediterranean Sea.

Human-caused climate change has doubled the likelihood of a storm like this week’s deluge in Valencia, according to a partial analysis released Thursday by the World Weather Attribution, a group made up of dozens of international scientists that focuses on global warming in extreme weather. Studies the role of.

Spain has suffered almost two years of drought, which made flooding worse because the parched ground was so hard that it could not absorb the rain.

In August 1996, a camp site along the Gallego River in Biscas in the northeast was flooded, killing 87 people.