Maribel Albalat, mayor of the nearby town of Paiporta, said they had never received warning 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.
Clinging to pillar
In Godelleta, a town 37 kilometres west of Valencia city, Antonio Molina, 52, described how he survived a flash flood on Tuesday evening by clinging to a pillar on a neighbour’s porch with water up to his neck till the heavy rain finally subsided.
His dog was later found alive swimming in the water, while his wife and son saved themselves by reaching the upper floor of their home.
Molina’s home had already suffered two major floods in 2018 and 2020 and he blamed authorities for allowing construction of residential buildings in depressions where water accumulates.
People cross a bridge through piles of debris after floods hit parts of the country in Valencia, Spain.Credit: Getty Images
“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.”
About 80 km of roads in the eastern region were seriously damaged or impassable, said Transport Minister Oscar Puente. Many were blocked by abandoned cars.
“Unfortunately there are dead bodies in some vehicles,” Puente told reporters, adding that it would take two to three weeks to re-establish the high-speed train connection between Valencia and Madrid.
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Visiting a rescue coordination centre near Valencia city, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez urged people to stay at home due to the threat of more stormy weather.
“Right now the most important thing is to safeguard as many lives as possible,” he told reporters.
In the hard-hit rural town of Utiel, some 85 km inland, the Magro river burst its banks, sending up to three metres of water into the mostly single-storey homes.
Utiel’s mayor, Ricardo Gabaldon, said at least six people had died in the town of about 12,000, most of them elderly or disabled people who were unable to clamber to safety.
Residents used water pumps carried on tractors as they started to clean up early on Thursday, with children helping to sweep the sidewalks. Ruined household appliances and furniture were piled up in the middle of roads and elderly people struggled to walk in the slippery, mud-coated streets.
As climate change is linked to more frequent bouts of extreme weather, Hannah Cloke, a professor of hydrology at Britain’s University of Reading, said the Valencia floods showed the need for greater public awareness of the dangers.
“We could see that people were putting themselves at risk driving in floodwaters and there was just so much water that it has overwhelmed these places,” she said.
Reuters
