Spain floods latest: Death toll at 158 as EU says flood should serve as warning

A terrified Valencia flood victim has revealed the scale of the devastation after heavy floodwaters engulfed her home in a matter of minutes.

Alba Paredes Borja is from the Spanish town of Alfafar, one of the areas hardest hit by the deadly storm, where local authorities are calling for urgent help in receiving food, water and medical supplies.

“I’m terrified. Everything looks apocalyptic,” she told The Independent. The floods – known as the “cold drop” or DANA phenomena – have claimed 158 lives, including at least three people in the municipality, leaving the city in ruins and cut off from all communication.

Officials of the European Union cited the devastating flooding in Spain as a reminder of the self-harming effects of humans’ destruction of nature.

European Commission envoy Florika Fink-Hooijer said the “catastrophe” in Spain’s Valencia region highlighted the link between biodiversity loss and human-caused climate crisis.

“If we act on biodiversity, we at least can buffer some of the climate impacts,” Ms Fink-Hooijer said at a press conference.

“At this COP we really have a chance to act,” she added.

The floods have demolished bridges and left roads unrecognisable as they became floating graveyards.

Rushing water turned narrow streets into death traps and spawned rivers that tore through homes and businesses, sweeping away cars, people and everything else in its path.

Luis Sanchez, a welder, said he saved several people who were trapped in their cars on the flooded V-31 highway south of Valencia city.

The road rapidly became a floating graveyard strewn with hundreds of vehicles.

“I saw bodies floating past. I called out, but nothing,” Mr Sanchez said.

“The firefighters took the elderly first, when they could get in. I am from nearby so I tried to help and rescue people.

“People were crying all over, they were trapped.”

Weather warnings are in force across swathes of Spain as further storms approach on the heels of devastating flooding which has claimed at least 158 lives – making it the country’s worst natural disaster in living memory.

Prime minister Pedro Sanchez has warned that the devastation caused by flash flooding is “not finished” as he declared Valencia a “disaster zone” on Thursday. Urging residents to remain in their homes, he said: “Right now the most important thing is to safeguard as many lives as possible.”

Cities such as Valencia and Malaga were inundated this week after nearly a year’s worth of rain – close to half a metre – fell in just eight hours in some areas, leaving residents “trapped like rats” in homes and cars, as described by one desperate local mayor recalling the chaos.

My colleague Andy Gregory reports:

Crews searched for bodies in stranded cars and sodden buildings as residents salvaged what they could from their ruined homes following monstrous flash floods in Spain that claimed at least 158 lives, with 155 deaths confirmed in the eastern Valencia region alone.

More horrors emerged on Thursday from the debris and ubiquitous layers of mud left by the walls of water that produced Spain’s deadliest natural disaster in living memory.

The damage from the storm late Tuesday and early Wednesday recalled the aftermath of a tsunami, with survivors left to pick up the pieces as they mourn their loved ones.

Cars were piled on one another like fallen dominoes, uprooted trees, downed power lines and household items all mired in mud that covered streets in dozens of communities in Valencia, a region south of Barcelona on the Mediterranean coast.

An unknown number of people are still missing and more victims could be found.

“Unfortunately, there are dead people inside some vehicles,” Spain’s Transport Minister Oscar Puente said early on Thursday before the death toll spiked from 95 on Wednesday night.

Dubbed “the flood of the century”, rainfall on Tuesday saw wide swathes of southern and eastern Spain completely destroyed by torrents of muddy water.

With cars tumbling down streets in Valencia and village roads turned to rivers, the army was drafted in to assist in the ongoing rescue operation.

My colleague Athena Stavrou reports:

Greenhouses and farms across southern Spain, known as Europe’s garden for its exported produce, were also ruined by heavy rains and flooding.

While the most suffering was inflicted on municipalities near the city of Valencia, the storms unleashed their fury over huge swaths of the south and eastern coast of the Iberian peninsula.

Two fatalities were confirmed in the neighboring Castilla La Mancha region and one in southern Andalusia.

The storms spawned a hail storm that punched holes in cars in Andalusia, while homes were left without water as far southwest as Malaga in the region.

Heavy rains have continued farther north on Thursday as the Spanish weather agency issued alerts for several counties in Castellón, in the eastern Valencia region, and for Tarragona in Catalonia, as well as southwest Cadiz.

“This storm front is still with us,” the prime minister warned. “Stay home and heed the official recommendation and you will help save lives.”

Alba Paredes Borja is from the Spanish town of Alfafar, one of the areas hardest hit by the deadly storm, where local authorities are calling for urgent help in receiving food, water and medical supplies.

“I’m terrified. Everything looks apocalyptic,” she told The Independent. The floods – known as the “cold drop” or DANA phenomena – have claimed 158 lives, including at least three people in the municipality, leaving the city in ruins and cut off from all communication.