Spain floods latest: Dogs being used in search for missing people as ‘stick-wielding’ vigilantes patrol streets
Flooding that killed at least 217 people, mostly near Valencia, dumped rain on Barcelona on Monday
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Your support makes all the difference.As Spain grapples with its deadliest flood disaster in decades, tensions are escalating in the devastated Valencian suburb of Paiporta where vigilante groups have begun patrolling the streets to curb what they say are rampant post-flood robberies.
Following record-breaking floods that claimed over 200 lives across Spain, residents in some of the hardest-hit areas have turned to self-policing, frustrated by what they see as a lacklustre official response.
Groups of local men—some donning nationalist symbols—are patrolling rubble-strewn, poorly lit streets, seeking to prevent further victimisation by deterring alleged looters, Reuters has reported.
The suburb of Valencia where the stick-wielding men are patrolling is where the king and queen of Spain were pelted with mud.
As search and rescue operations continue, authorities are using sniffer dogs to comb through a submerged underground carpark at a shopping centre on the outskirts of the city, where severe flooding left vehicles and the structure underwater.
As police teams pump out the floodwaters and search through the roughly 50 waterlogged vehicles discovered so far, no bodies have yet been found.
Survivors described the terrifying event to the Spanish newspaper El Mundo as “a nightmare” and “worse” than the “tsunami movie” with shop assistants recounting how they narrowly escaped as torrents of water surged into the complex.
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Spain's king stood his ground under a mud barrage. What will the iconic moment mean for his reign?
Spain floods mapped: Where are weather alerts in force as death toll hits 217?
Politicians point the finger over who is to blame for failure to warn residents of fatal floods
Spanish minister Felix Bolanos from the Socialist Party said Tuesday’s cabinet would declare some of the worst hit villages by the floods in the regions of Valencia, Andalusia, Castile La Mancha and Catalonia as “severely affected areas” so that they can be entitled to emergency funds.
He added that the government would approve on Tuesday a package of relief measures to help people cope with the situation without giving further details.
Opposition politicians accused the left-wing central government of acting too slowly to warn residents and send in rescuers.
Mazon on Monday had previously said the Hydrographic Confederation of Jucar (CHJ), which measures the flow of rivers and ravines for the state, had cancelled a planned alert three times.
But Madrid said the CHJ does not issue flood risk alerts, which are the responsibility of Spain’s regional governments.
Spain approves 10.6 billion-euro relief package
Spain's central government approved a 10.6-billion-euro (£8.9 billion) relief package for 78 communities on Tuesday that Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez compared with measures taken during the Covid-19 pandemic.
They include direct payments of 20,000 euros to 60,000 euros to owners of damaged homes, among other financial aid for businesses and municipal governments.
"We have a lot of work left to do, and we know it," Mr Sanchez said.
Mr Sanchez said he will ask the European Union to help pay for the relief.
Satellite imagery reveals scale of devastation
Satellite imagery has revealed before and after views of the disastrous Valencia floods. It shows green plains turned into a deluge of mud.
Satellite imagery reveals incredible before & after views of the disastrous Valencia floods. The new death toll stands at 205, with a staggering 1,900 people still unaccounted for. pic.twitter.com/p1a0zzOIiT
— Nahel Belgherze (@WxNB_) November 1, 2024
Spanish banks to withstand impact of recent floods, central bank says
Spanish banks have a loan exposure of about 20 billion euros ($21.80 billion) in areas worst-hit by floods, but will be able to absorb the shock, a Bank of Spain official said on Tuesday, adding climate risks were materialising faster than thought. At least 217 people died and many are still unaccounted for in the worst flooding in decades in Spain.
"This is a shock that, for a financial system, a banking system such as the one in Spain, is something that can be absorbed," Angel Estrada, the bank's head of financial stability, said.
Estrada said that Spanish banks' exposures to areas worst hit by floods in the regions of Valencia, Andalusia, Castile La Mancha and Catalonia would rise to around 13 billion euros in loans to households and around 7 billion euros to companies.
Presenting the central bank's financial stability report, Estrada said these were the total exposures and would "not all materialise into losses".
In total, the central bank has identified 23,000 companies with outstanding loans and 472,000 loan holders in those regions, of which 150,000 were mortgage contracts on which the banks are already offering loan moratoriums.
The head of financial stability said it was still too early to assess the economic impact of the floods though acknowledged that there had been a more "significant destruction of capital" compared to the COVID-19 pandemic. He also said it was imperative to implement measures to help the worst affected cope with the situation and boost a fast economic recovery.
Estrada also noted that the floods in Spain had shown climate change was happening faster than previously expected and that banks should focus on measuring physical risks not just transition risks. The European Central Bank has long complained that banks are not meeting its supervisory expectations on climate change and has begun issuing fine notices to lenders not meeting its long-defined expectations on disclosing climate risks.
British couple missing for days in Spain floods found dead in car
A British couple has been found dead in their car days after severe flash floods swept through Spain.
Don Turner, 78, and his wife Terry, 74, had not been seen since Tuesday, when torrential rains began to batter Valencia. Ms Turner had told friends that they were “popping out” to shop for supplies.
The couple’s daughter, Ruth O’Loughlin, confirmed the bodies were discovered on Saturday. Ms O’Loughlin told BBC Radio WM that she found out her parents had died after receiving a message from their friends asking to call them.
Spain’s king vows to give ‘hope’ after angry residents throw mud on his visit to Valencia town
Spain’s king has vowed to give “hope” after angry residents threw mud at him during his visit to a flood-stricken town in Valencia.
The king’s comments came during a visit to the epicentre of their nation’s deadliest natural disaster in living memory, where a crowd of enraged locals hurled clots of mud left by the storm-spawned flooding at Felipe VI and his wife Queen Letizia.
Spain’s king responds after angry residents throw mud on his visit to Valencia town
Spain’s king has vowed to give “hope” after angry residents threw mud at him during his visit to a flood-stricken town in Valencia. More than 200 people have died and thousands of livelihoods have been shattered following last week’s devastating floods. The king’s comments came during a visit to the epicenter of their nation's deadliest natural disaster in living memory, where a crowd of enraged locals hurled clots of mud left by the storm-spawned flooding at Felipe VI and his wife Queen Letizia. After the visit on Sunday (3 November), in a meeting with emergency services, Felipe said the anger had to be dealt with.
Spanish police seek DNA samples for missing,
Spain’s national guard on Tuesday asked relatives of people missing in deadly floods to provide DNA samples to identify bodies, as Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said he was earmarking 10.6 billion euros ($11.6 billion) to help victims.
The government has declined to say how many people are missing almost a week on from the disaster. Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska said only that it was a “significant number” and that in the absence of clear information, it was “best not to specify”.
A week after Spain's floods, families hold out hope that loved ones are not among the dead
Francisco Murgui went out to try to salvage his motorbike when the water started to rise. He never came back. One week after catastrophic flooding devasted eastern Spain, Maria Murgui still holds out hope that her father is alive and among the unknown number of the missing. “He was like many people in town who went out to get their car or motorbike to safety,” the 27-year-old told The Associated Press. “The flash flood caught him outside, and he had to cling to a tree in order to escape drowning. He called us to tell us he was fine, that we shouldn’t worry.”
But when Maria set out into the streets to try to rescue him from the water washing away everything in its path, he was nowhere to be found. “He held up until 1 in the morning,” she said. “By 2, I went outside with a neighbor and a rope to try to locate him. But we couldn’t find him. And since then, we haven’t heard anything about him.”
What caused the devastating flash flooding in Spain?
Floods left cars piled up like toys in streets, swallowed homes, and covered entire neighbourhoods in sludge as authorities report 217 fatalities
What caused the devastating flash flooding in Spain?
Spain’s meteorological agency, said Valencia had seen ‘the most adverse cold drop of the century’ prior to the floods
Latest pictures of clean up
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