Marisol Lara will never forget the wailing of the elderly as the waters rose higher and higher.
Sobbing inconsolably as she carries two five-litre bottles of water which she procured after queuing for two hours, Lara, 62, recounts the sudden catastrophe — Spain’s worst flash floods in a generation — which have devastated this town on the outskirts of Valencia.
“There’s an old people’s home in front of our building and I could hear them crying and screaming for help — ‘socorro! socorro!’ — but there was nothing I could do for them. None of us could reach them, the water from the storm drain just rose so quickly. I feel terrible for them,” she said.
Survivors in Paiporta describe hearing elderly residents cry for aid as floodwaters rose with terrifying speed
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Wreckage of cars piled up in the Sedaví area of Valencia
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The disaster has already claimed 155