Spain floods latest: British man among 95 dead in Valencia flooding as dozens still missing
The death toll continues to rise after the worst flash floods in three decades swept the eastern Spanish region of Valencia
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Your support makes all the difference.At least 95 people, including a 71-year-old British man, have died in southern and eastern Spain following the deadliest flash flooding in the country for three decades.
Authorities fear the death will rise as other regions of Spain were yet to report victims and search efforts continued in hard-to-reach places to find dozens of missing people.
“The fact that we can’t give a number of the missing persons indicates the magnitude of the tragedy,” said minister of territory policies Angel Victor Torres.
A British man died in hospital hours after being rescued from his home on the outskirts of Alhaurín de la Torre, Málaga, according to the president of the Andalusian government, Juanma Morena.
He said the man had been suffering from hypothermia and died after suffering several cardiac arrests.
As torrential rain – amounting to a year’s worth in just eight hours in some areas – inundated cities such as Valencia and Malaga, many found themselves "trapped like rats" in their homes and cars, surrounded by rapidly rising floodwaters.
Police and rescuers used helicopters to lift people from their homes and cars as mud-coloured water quickly filled streets in dozens of villages, towns and cities.
Rescuers fear discovering underwater grave in mall car park
In Valencia, the search continued for bodies inside houses and thousands of wrecked cars strewn in the streets, on highways, and in canals that channelled last week’s floods into populated areas.
Spain’s Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska said that authorities can still not give a reliable estimate of the missing. In the Aldaia municipality, some 50 soldiers, police and firefighters, some wearing wetsuits, searched in a huge shopping centre’s underground parking lot for possible victims.
They used a small boat and spotlights to move around in the huge structure with vehicles submerged in at least a meter of murky water.
Police spokesman Ricardo Gutiïerrez told reporters that so far some 50 vehicles had been found and no bodies had been discovered there.
The Bonaire shopping mall’s 1,800 underground parking spaces quickly filled with water and mud on Tuesday and Wednesday when the southern outskirts of Valencia were hit by a tsunami-like flooding. The team is using four pumps to remove the water.
Hard-hit towns at risk of diseases over floodwaters and decomposing bodies
Spanish public health experts have warned over immediate health risks associated with stagnant floodwaters and decomposing bodies.
The Ministry of Health has insisted that water contamination from dead animals or humans is not currently a public health issue.
However, residents remain at high risk over gastrointestinal illnesses from drinking contaminated water, injuries from debris, and the proliferation of mosquitoes spreading diseases.
Public health societies, emergency response teams, and NGOs are currently working on the ground in the most affected areas like Paiporta and Chiva in Valencia to ensure the safety and hygiene of residents.
With dozens more feared to be dead, health officials have called local authorities to speed up search of bodies and clean-up operations to prevent further risks.
Nearly 3,000 dead animals removed from flooded farms
The Spanish Ministry of Agriculture has removed over 2,950 dead animals from farms in areas hit by the flash floods.
Local officials removed deceased animals from 17 farms in Valencia towns, including pigs, sheep horses and poultry
Catalan Police post harrowing video of desperate rescue
Catalan Police have posted a video of a desperate rescue of a man trapped in his car in Baix Llobregat, a coastal region just south of Barcelona.
Catalan Civil Protectionissued a mobile phone alert to residents in Baix Llobregat, Barcelonès, Garraf, Maresme, Vallès Occidental, Vallès Oriental, and Selva counties urging people to limit movement and avoid approaching riverbanks or ravines on Monday morning.
The first message was issued at 8.30am in Baix Llobregat before hours of heavy rainfall affected surrounding areas.
Grandaughter of British couple killed in Spanish floods speaks out
Don Turner, 78, and his wife Terry, 74, had not been seen since flash floods swept through eastern Spain.
Their daughter, Ruth O’Loughlin, from Burntwood, Staffordshire, confirmed to the BBC that her parents’ bodies had been found in their car on Saturday.
She had said her parents had moved to Spain a decade ago because they had “always wanted to live in the sunshine” and criticised the “diabolicial” response from Spanish authorities.
Her neice wrote on Facebook: “This tragedy that will haunt us for a lifetime. If only the people knew the floods were coming. We will never forget.
“Thank you Mom and Auntie Ruth for being so strong and doing the family, and Nan and Grandad proud.
“We love you.”
In pictures: Spanish residents band together in aftermath of flooding
Real Madrid boss Carlo Ancelotti says all football games should have been cancelled
Football games should not have been played at the weekend after the deadly floods, the Real Madrid manager has said.
“Football should have stopped this weekend,” Carlo Ancelotti said.
He added: “Football is a party and you can celebrate when things are going well, but when they’re not going well there’s no celebration to be had. It’s the most important of the unimportant things in life.”
“But we are not the ones in charge and we have zero power”, adding: “All the coaches had the same opinion not to play.”
Valencia households to get €6,000
The regional head of Valencia, Carlos Mazon, said that his region would separately hand out each household 6,000 euros and make available at least 200,000 euros to help each town face urgent spending needs.
In total, Mazon, of the conservative People’s Party, said the region would request from Spain’s central government a first aid package worth around 31.4 billion euros, including funds to reconstruct key infrastructure.
Locals criticised late alerts from authorities about the dangers and a perceived delayed response by emergency services.
But General Javier Marcos, commander of the army’s emergency response services, said he had ordered 500 soldiers to be deployed within 15 minutes of seeing the flood warning on Tuesday who were able to enter hard-hit areas.
“The degree of destruction is so great that mobility is limited,” he said. “It is so complex that it requires two things: discipline and patience.”
British government drawn up plans to cope with extreme weather following Spain floods
Sir Keir Starmer’s senior ministers have drawn up plans to cope with extreme weather this winter following the devastating floods in Spain.
The cross-government work will ensure “we are domestically as resilient as we possibly can be” over the winter, Downing Street said.
At Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting, Net Zero Secretary Ed Miliband pointed to warnings that 600,000 people in the UK could be at risk of flooding in future because of climate change.
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Pat McFadden led the Cabinet briefing on winter preparations, adding that “recent events in Spain were a reminder of the impact that, for example, extreme weather can have on local communities”.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “We’re always preparing for all eventualities, whether it’s the impact of extreme weather, whether it’s impacts on the NHS.”
The Prime Minister’s spokesman said: “The link was made to the fact that climate change can result in extreme weather events. We have obviously seen these very devastating scenes in Spain.”
‘It could go down as the greatest day of Felipe’s reign’ Professor reacts to mud slinging at Spanish king
Oriol Bartomeus, a political science professor at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, said of the moment angry Valencia residents threw mud at the king and chased off other politicians.
Speaking of King Felipe’s reaction where he engaged in dialogue with the people, Prof Bartomeus said : “If he had sought protection from his bodyguards and run away, now that would have been the darkest day of his reign.
“Instead he showed why he is king, demonstrating composure and serenity, and by getting as close as he could to the people.”
The 56-year-old Felipe took over a Royal House whose reputation was in tatters after the financial and lifestyle scandals of his father, Juan Carlos, who abdicated in 2014.
Where the prime minister was pelted and fled Felipe stood his ground for over half an hour. It was impossible to hear what was said, but he spoke to several shouting people in an intimate and apparently serious tone.Bartomeus, who said he is not a fervent defender of the monarchy, noted what the king didn’t do: He didn’t appear to patronise the people.“
He didn’t console the people, like for example you see the British royals do,” Bartomeus said. Instead, “he dialogued with them. He put the state on his back, got down off the pedestal and went down to the people who were telling him that the state had not arrived, and he told them that it will.”
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