Nearly 100 people died in floods that hit southeastern Spain on Tuesday (29 October) evening. A three-day national day of mourning begins today.
Destroyed houses, cars piled on top of each other, streets full of mud and tormented residents shocked by the scale of the disaster. Torrential rains on Tuesday (29 October) evening caused horrific flooding in south-east Spain. At least 95 people lost their lives, 92 of them in the Valencia region alone. The city experienced similar flooding in 1957 when the disaster claimed 81 lives. According to El Mundo, then, as well as this week, the cause of the tragedy was the Turia River. The misfortune was repeated 67 years later in a similar flood.
In addition to Valencia, authorities say two more deaths have been recorded in the neighbouring region of Castilla-La Mancha, and a third in Andalusia. That death toll, which is the highest since floods claimed 300 lives in October 1973, "will rise because we assume there are many missing", Territorial Policy Minister Ángel Víctor Torres warned last night.
The scale of the tragedy is such that El Mundo newspaper is describing it as an apocalypse and the government is declaring three days of national mourning, which begins today Thursday, October 31. To assist in locating and identifying the missing, two offices have been set up in Valencia where the Provincial Police Forensic Brigade and the Civil Guard will receive next of kin to provide data to help with identification.
The head of the consortium of fire services of the province of Valencia, José Miguel Bassett, also explained that the lack of access to many isolated areas, without electricity and water and with cut roads, makes rescue operations difficult. Yesterday (30 October) afternoon the Civil Guard reported that 2,500 rescues had been carried out and estimated that around 5,000 vehicles were still stranded. | BGNES
