At Least 95 People Die in Devastating Flash Floods in Eastern Spain

View of a submerged pier at Gola de Putxol in Albufera, Valencia, eastern Spain, 30 October 2024. (EPA)
View of a submerged pier at Gola de Putxol in Albufera, Valencia, eastern Spain, 30 October 2024. (EPA)
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At Least 95 People Die in Devastating Flash Floods in Eastern Spain

View of a submerged pier at Gola de Putxol in Albufera, Valencia, eastern Spain, 30 October 2024. (EPA)
View of a submerged pier at Gola de Putxol in Albufera, Valencia, eastern Spain, 30 October 2024. (EPA)

Flash floods in Spain swept away cars, turned village streets into rivers, disrupted rail lines and highways and killed at least 95 people in the worst natural disaster to hit the European nation in recent memory.

Rainstorms that started Tuesday and continued Wednesday caused flooding in a wide swath of southern and eastern Spain, stretching from Malaga to Valencia. Muddy torrents tumbled vehicles down streets at high speeds, while pieces of wood swirled in the water alongside household items. Police and rescue services used helicopters to lift people from their homes and rubber boats to reach drivers stranded atop cars.

Emergency services in the eastern region of Valencia confirmed a death toll of 70 people on Wednesday. Another two casualties were reported in the neighboring Castilla La Mancha region.

“Yesterday was the worst day of my life,” Ricardo Gabaldón, the mayor of Utiel, a town in Valencia, told national broadcaster RTVE on Wednesday. He said six residents had perished and several more are unaccounted for.

“We were trapped like rats. Cars and trash containers were flowing down the streets. The water was rising to 3 meters (9.8 feet),” he said.

Spain’s government declared three days of mourning starting Thursday.

“For those who are looking for their loved ones, all of Spain feels your pain,” Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said in a televised address.

Rescue personnel and more than 1,100 soldiers from Spain’s emergency response units were deployed to affected areas. Spain’s central government set up a crisis committee to coordinate rescue efforts.

The elderly were the most vulnerable. RTVE broadcast footage of seniors at a nursing home in chairs and wheelchairs with waters rising over their knees, and a military unit rescuing an elderly couple from the top story of their house in the bucket of a bulldozer.

Television reports showed videos shot by panicked residents showing waters flooding the ground floors of apartment buildings, streams bursting their banks and bridges giving way. People gasped as they pointed to what they feared could be bodies bobbing in the swift brown flood.

Spain’s national weather service called the rainfall “extraordinary" in parts of Valencia.

Located south of Barcelona on the Mediterranean coast, Valencia is a tourist destination known for its beaches, citrus orchards, and as the origin of paella. The region has gorges and small riverbeds that spend much of the year completely dry but quickly fill with water when it rains. Many of them pass through populated areas.

Spain has experienced similar autumn storms in recent years. Nothing, however, compared to the devastation over the last two days, which recalls floods in Germany and Belgium in 2021 in which 230 people were killed.

The death toll will likely rise with other regions yet to report victims and search efforts continuing in hard-to-reach places.

“We are facing a very difficult situation,” minister of territory policies Ángel Víctor Torres said. “The fact that we can’t give a number of the missing persons indicates the magnitude of the tragedy.”

Spain is still recovering from a severe drought and has registered record high temperatures in recent years. Scientists say increased episodes of extreme weather are likely linked to climate change. The prolonged drought makes it more difficult for the land to absorb high volumes of water.

The storms also unleashed a rare tornado and a freak hailstorm that punched holes in car windows and greenhouses.

Transport was also affected. A high-speed train with nearly 300 people on board derailed near Malaga, although rail authorities said no one was hurt. High-speed train service between Valencia city and Madrid was interrupted, and the transport ministry said it could take up to four days to restore highspeed service to the capital due to the damage done to the line.  

Bus and commuter rail lines were likewise interrupted. Many flights were cancelled Tuesday night, stranding some 1,500 people overnight at Valencia's airport. Flights resumed Wednesday.

Valencian regional President Carlos Mazón urged people to stay at home, saying travel by road was difficult due to fallen trees and wrecked vehicles. Rescue efforts were hampered by downed power lines and power outages, and the regional emergency service responded to some 30,000 calls, Mazón said.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told reporters in Brussels that the EU will “help coordinate the rescue teams” using its Copernicus geo-monitoring satellite system.

“Europe is ready to help,” Von der Leyen said.

As the floods receded, thick layers of mud mixed with refuse made streets unrecognizable.

“The neighborhood is destroyed, all the cars are on top of each other, it’s literally smashed up,” Christian Viena, a bar owner in the Valencian village of Barrio de la Torre, said by phone. "Everything is a total wreck, everything is ready to be thrown away. The mud is almost 30 centimeters (11 inches) deep.”

Outside, people were venturing out to see what they could salvage. Cars were piled up and the streets were filled with clumps of water-logged branches.

Some residents appealed for news of their missing loved ones via social media, television and radio broadcasts.

Leonardo Enrique told RTVE that his family searched for hours for his 40-year-old son, Leonardo Enrique Rivera, who was driving a delivery van when the rain began. His son sent a message saying his van was flooding and that he had been hit by another vehicle near Ribarroja, an industrial town that is among the worst affected, Enrique said.

Soccer games for Valencia and neighboring club Levante were postponed.



Taiwan Shuts Down as Strong Typhoon Kong-Rey Hits, One Dead

This Himawari satellite handout image from the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) website in collaboration with National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NOAA/NESDIS) and Colorado State University-CIRA (CSU/CIRA) taken and released on October 31, 2024 shows typhoon Kong-rey developing over the Pacific as it approaches Taiwan (center L). (Photo by Handout / various sources / AFP)
This Himawari satellite handout image from the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) website in collaboration with National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NOAA/NESDIS) and Colorado State University-CIRA (CSU/CIRA) taken and released on October 31, 2024 shows typhoon Kong-rey developing over the Pacific as it approaches Taiwan (center L). (Photo by Handout / various sources / AFP)
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Taiwan Shuts Down as Strong Typhoon Kong-Rey Hits, One Dead

This Himawari satellite handout image from the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) website in collaboration with National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NOAA/NESDIS) and Colorado State University-CIRA (CSU/CIRA) taken and released on October 31, 2024 shows typhoon Kong-rey developing over the Pacific as it approaches Taiwan (center L). (Photo by Handout / various sources / AFP)
This Himawari satellite handout image from the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) website in collaboration with National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NOAA/NESDIS) and Colorado State University-CIRA (CSU/CIRA) taken and released on October 31, 2024 shows typhoon Kong-rey developing over the Pacific as it approaches Taiwan (center L). (Photo by Handout / various sources / AFP)

A strong Typhoon Kong-rey made landfall on Taiwan's east coast on Thursday, the largest storm by size to hit the island in nearly 30 years, closing financial markets, causing hundreds of flights to be cancelled and reducing rail services.
The typhoon knocked out power to nearly half a million households, the government said.
The storm hit the mountainous and sparsely populated east coast county of Taitung, according to Taiwan's Central Weather Administration, with strong winds and torrential rain affecting almost all the island.
The fire department reported one person had died when their truck hit a fallen tree in central Taiwan.
At one point a super typhoon, Kong-rey slightly weakened overnight but remained powerful as the equivalent of a Category 4 hurricane packing gusts of more than 250 kph (155 mph), according to Tropical Storm Risk.
Taiwan's weather administration put the typhoon's size at the biggest to hit the island since 1996.
"I hope that everyone in the country will co-operate in avoiding disaster and refraining from engaging in dangerous behaviour such as wave watching during the typhoon," President Lai Ching-te wrote on his Facebook page.
Administration forecaster Gene Huang said after hitting the east coast it would head towards the Taiwan Strait as a much weakened storm and urged people across the island to stay at home due to the danger of high winds.
Environmental officials were working on Thursday to prevent oil leaking from a Chinese cargo ship beached against rocks on Taiwan's northern coast after losing power in turbulent weather.
Warnings for destructive winds of more than 160 kph (100 mph) were issued in Taitung, whose outlying Lanyu island recorded gusts above 260 kph (162 mph) before some of the wind-barometers there went offline.
"It was terrifying last night. Many people on the island didn't sleep, worrying about something happening to their house," Sinan Rapongan, a government official on Lanyu, also known as Orchid Island, told Reuters.
Some roofs had been damaged and more than 1,300 homes had lost power but so far no injuries had been reported, she added.
Parts of eastern Taiwan recorded one meter (3.3 feet) of rainfall since the typhoon began approaching on Wednesday.
The defense ministry has put 36,000 troops on standby to help with rescue efforts, while almost 10,000 people have been evacuated from high risk areas ahead of time, the government said.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co, the world's largest contract chipmaker and major supplier to companies like Apple and Nvidia, said it has activated routine typhoon alert preparation procedures at all its factories and construction sites.
"We do not expect significant impact to our operations," it said in an emailed statement.
Taiwan's transport ministry said 314 international flights had been cancelled, along with all domestic flights.
Taiwan's high speed railway, which connects major cities on its populated western plains, continued to operate with a much reduced service.
Kong-rey is forecast to graze China along the coast of Fujian province on Friday morning. China's financial hub Shanghai is bracing for potentially the worst rains in more than 40 years.
Subtropical Taiwan is frequently hit by typhoons. The last one, Typhoon Krathon, killed four people earlier this month as it passed through the south of the island.