At least 51 people died in dramatic floods which devastated southeastern Spain on Tuesday evening, wreaking havoc in many villages cut off from the rest of the country, which emergency services are struggling to access.
“The provisional figure of people who died (is) 51,” emergency services announced in a message posted Wednesday morning on the social network X, specifying that certain localities remained inaccessible.
During the night, the president of the regional government of the community of Valencia, Carlos Monzón, indicated that several bodies had been found. “We are facing an unprecedented situation, which no one has ever seen before,” he added.
However, nothing suggested such a number of victims, which makes these floods the most dramatic in Spain since August 1996.
“The situation is terrible,” Defense Minister Margarita Roiles told journalists, specifying that a thousand soldiers, supported by helicopters, were in the area to lend a hand to the rescue services.
Among the most affected municipalities are L'Alcudia, in the Valencia region, and Letur, in the neighboring province of Albacete (Castilla-La Mancha region), where six people are missing after the flash flood invaded the streets , swept away cars and flooded buildings.
“Never seen this”
“The priority is to find the missing people,” declared the delegate of the central government in Castile-La Mancha, Milagros Tolon, specifying that the emergency services, supported by drones, had worked all night to try to find them. spot.
“The situation is Dantesque (…) I have never seen this,” Consuelo Tarazona, the mayor of Horno de Alcedo, a town in the suburbs of Valencia, described on public television TVE. The rise in water was “monstrous”, “we were flooded all of a sudden, without being able to warn the neighbors”.
Authorities have asked residents not to try to travel by road, while the central government has set up a crisis unit, which is expected to meet again on Wednesday at noon in the presence of returning Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez of an official visit to India.
Mr. Sánchez must first address the country from the La Moncloa Palace at 11:30 a.m. local time (10:30 a.m. GMT).
“I am following with concern the information on missing people and the damage caused by the storm in recent hours,” he wrote on X in the night, inviting the population to follow the advice of the authorities. “Be very careful and avoid unnecessary travel,” he added.
In a short message posted by the royal house, the King of Spain Felipe VI said he was “devastated” by the toll of the floods, while the deputies observed a minute of silence in Parliament.
“Cold drop”
Valencia town hall announced that all schools would remain closed on Wednesday, as would public gardens, and that all sporting events were canceled.
| © AFP Overflow of the Guadalhorce River in Alora, southern Spain, October 29, 2024 |
Twelve flights due to land at Valencia airport (east) were diverted to other cities in Spain due to heavy rain and strong winds, Spanish airport operator Aena said. Ten other flights scheduled to depart or arrive at the airport were canceled.
The national rail infrastructure operator Adif suspended high-speed trains between Madrid and Valencia on Tuesday evening due to the effects of the storm on the main points of the rail network.
A high-speed train carrying 276 passengers was derailed Tuesday afternoon due to bad weather in the southern region of Andalusia, but no one was injured, according to the regional government.
The national weather agency Aemet on Tuesday evening placed the Valencia region on red alert and declared the second highest alert level in parts of Andalusia, warning that rains would continue at least until Thursday.
The Valencia region and the Spanish Mediterranean coast in general regularly experience, in autumn, the meteorological phenomenon of “gota fria” (“cold drop”), an isolated depression at high altitude which causes sudden and extremely violent rains, sometimes for several days.
Scientists warn that extreme weather events such as heatwaves and storms are becoming more frequent, longer lasting and more intense due to climate change.
