Death toll in Spain’s floods rises to 158, among Europe’s worst storm disasters

VALENCIA/GODELLETA, Spain — The death toll from devastating flash floods in eastern Spain climbed to 158 on Thursday, with rescue teams still searching for those missing in what could become Europe’s worst storm-related disaster in over five decades.

“There’s a total of 158 people to which must be added dozens and dozens of missing,” Angel Victor Torres, minister in charge of cooperation with Spain’s regions, told a press conference.

A year’s worth of rain fell in eight hours in parts of the Valencia region on Tuesday.

The tragedy is already Spain’s worst flood-related disaster in modern history, and meteorologists say human-driven climate change is making such extreme weather events more frequent and destructive.

In 2021, at least 185 people died in heavy flooding in Germany. Prior to that, 209 people died in Romania in 1970 and floods in Portugal in 1967 killed nearly 500 people.

Rescue teams on Thursday discovered the bodies of eight people, including a local policeman, who had been trapped in a garage on the outskirts of the city of Valencia, Mayor Maria Jose Catala told reporters.

In the same neighbourhood of La Torre, she said, a 45-year-old woman was also found dead in her home.

Thousands of people carrying bags or pushing shopping trolleys could be seen on Thursday crossing a pedestrian bridge over the Turia River from La Torre into Valencia city centre to stock up on essential supplies such as toilet paper and water.

Opposition politicians accused the central government in Madrid of acting too slowly to warn residents and send in rescue teams, prompting the Interior Ministry to say regional authorities were responsible for civil protection measures.

“Those people wouldn’t have died if they had been warned in time,” Laura Villaescusa, a neighbour and manager of a local supermarket, told Reuters.

Maribel Albalat, mayor of the nearby town of Paiporta, said residents were not warned of the imminent danger of flooding. She said 62 people had died in her town.

“We found a lot of elderly people inside their homes and people who went to get their cars. It was a trap,” she told TVE.

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CLINGING TO PILLAR

In Godelleta, a town 37 km (23 miles) west of Valencia city, Antonio Molina, 52, described how he survived by clinging to a pillar on a neighbour’s porch on Tuesday as water reached his neck.

Molina’s home suffered two major floods in 2018 and 2020 and he blamed authorities for allowing construction of residential buildings in depressions where water accumulates.

“We don’t want to live here anymore,” he said, tearfully. “As soon as we get a couple of raindrops, we’re already checking our phones.”

The floods have battered Valencia’s infrastructure, sweeping away bridges, roads and rail tracks, and submerged farmland in a region that produces about two-thirds of Spain’s citrus crops like oranges, which the country exports globally.

About 80 km (50 miles) of roads in the eastern region were seriously damaged or impassable, said Transport Minister Oscar Puente. Many were blocked by abandoned cars.