All around the city of Valencia, communities have been ravaged by the sudden rise and violence of the water. Searches continue to find possible survivors.
A devastated region still in shock. After the devastating floods which hit Spain on the night of Tuesday October 29 to Wednesday October 30, and which cost the lives of at least 95 people, the inhabitants of the Valencia region, the most affected, oscillate between sadness and amazement after the violence of these bad weather.
In the town of Castellar-Olivera, adjoining the city of Valencia, the damage is considerable and time seems to have stood still. Amidst the carcasses littering the road, covered by a heavy layer of mud, locals can only see the extent of the damage.
“My in-laws' house is devastated, I was up to my waist in water. We didn't sleep all night, we can't find the car, we don't know where it is. C “It was literally catastrophic,” Amelia told BFMTV. And the latter added: “There was no way to drain the water, when I entered the patio of the house, it was a field of mud.”
“Luckily there was a first floor”
The situation is the same in almost all of the municipalities surrounding Spain's third city, whose city center has been spared. In Aldaia, there are the same scenes of desolation in this devastated town, where the water rose two meters in the space of a few dozen minutes. Neither running water nor electricity have yet been restored.
“There was water, it was like a river. Look where the grate is, it rose more than a meter. Fortunately there was a first floor when the water arrived , we were able to go up and take shelter,” said Minerva, a resident of the town.
“The door was pulverized, fortunately for us we are alive, but we lost everything,” she laments.
Everywhere, the damage is colossal. Although the search ended late Wednesday evening for urban areas, many villages located in the surrounding mountains are still very difficult to access, and dozens of people are still missing.
Currently, 1,500 members of the police and 1,000 soldiers supported by helicopters are still trying to find survivors in this area. While the current toll is the highest since floods which left 300 dead in October 1973 in the country, the number of deaths “will increase” in the hours to come, the government has warned.