The Washington Post, by Chico Harlan, Anthony Faiola, Ian Livingston and Beatriz Ríos: At least 95 people have died and more are missing after torrential rains caused massive flooding in southeastern Spain, turning roads into rivers of floating cars and cutting off highways and access points, Spanish officials said Wednesday.
As much as a foot, or about 300 millimeters, of rain fell in mere hours late Tuesday, leading to catastrophic flooding in and around the city of Valencia. Totals throughout the day were reportedly as high as 20 inches, or 500 millimeters. In the town of Chiva, about 20 miles from Valencia, the rainfall in eight hours equaled the normal total in a year, Spain’s meteorological agency said.
The deluge reached the first floors of homes, swept away vehicles and in one instance — in footage posted on social media — knocked down a bridge. As further storms threatened Spain, a red alert was issued for areas around the city of Jerez, and orange alerts for Barcelona, Cádiz and Seville.
“We are in a very complicated moment,” Carlos Mazón, president of the Valencia region, told reporters. He described the situation as “unprecedented.”
Lucía Beamud, a city councillor and resident in the La Torre district of southern Valencia, told the Las Provincias news outlet Wednesday that the waters had risen “in a matter of minutes.”
“You could hear people screaming, and the neighbors were calling each other to try to confirm that the others were still alive,” Beamud said.
Witnesses described nightmarish scenarios as they sought to navigate the rising waters. One man told the news outlet Levante that he abandoned his car when it began to take on water but was carried away by a current and ended up smashing into a wall. “I thought I was going to die,” he said.
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez told people looking for missing relatives that “the whole of Spain weeps with you,” and he promised aid for flood-hit areas.
“We’re going to help with all the resources of the state,” Sánchez said in a televised address, pledging to “rebuild your houses, plazas, bridges.”
Sánchez’s minister for territorial policy, Ángel Victor Torres, told reporters Wednesday that the government had mobilized more than 2,000 members of the army, civil guard, national police and other forces in a massive operation employing 324 vehicles, including planes and helicopters. But rescue teams, he said, were having difficulty reaching affected areas.
The Interior Ministry said that 92 of the reported deaths were in Valencia. Local authorities said two more were in Castilla-La Mancha and one was in Malaga.
Authorities said the full toll of the disaster may take days to become clear.
“We are confronted with a very difficult situation,” Torres said.
The meteorological agency said the disaster was a product of a phenomenon known as isolated depression at high altitude — when an extremely cold air current descends on hot air. In this case, a combination of low pressure, trapped near the Strait of Gibraltar, and the warm waters of the Mediterranean Sea fueled persistent streams of heavy thunderstorms that dumped on various parts of the country.
Such cold fronts are typical in Spain this time of year. But the temperatures of the Mediterranean have been unusually high — a result of human-caused climate change, boosted by the strong El Niño last winter. In August, the Mediterranean reached its highest observed temperature for the second summer in a row. Although it has cooled somewhat into the fall, much of the region is still seeing sea surface temperatures some two to six degrees Fahrenheit (one to three Celsius) above average.
Scientists say warmer ocean waters create an atmosphere capable of holding more moisture — a phenomenon that can supercharge storms.
Pieter Groenemeijer, the director of the European Severe Storms Laboratory, said that the “influence of climate change,” in the form of the warmer Mediterranean air, “can make these events even more intense than they used to be.” The water temperatures near Valencia are around 73 degrees Fahrenheit.
“For late October that is still very warm,” he said.
In some spots in Spain, months’ worth of rain poured down in hours. The country’s meteorological agency said one station recorded the heaviest rainfall in a 24-hour period in Valencia since 1996. Precipitable water values, a measure of moisture in the air, were around 300 percent of normal Tuesday, according to weather models.
As some of the rain receded across the region, images showed cars jumbled together, junkyard style, in narrow alleyways and on main roads.
Torres said Valencia’s dock had reopened and activity was resuming at Valencia’s airports, where 1,000 passengers spent the night. Airports from Málaga to Madrid were also affected, with rail and road transport severely impacted. Power and water cuts remained an issue in parts of Valencia.
The government also announced three days of national mourning beginning Thursday, when Sánchez is expected to visit the affected areas.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the bloc had engaged its Copernicus satellite system to help rescue teams on the ground and offered to send additional first responders.
“What we are seeing is devastating,” she said. “Entire villages are covered in mud. People seeking refuge on trees, and cars swept away by the fury of the waters.”
The disaster in Spain is the latest in a series of generational flood events across Europe and around the globe. In the United States this month, Hurricane Helene caused more than 200 deaths — many of them inland, hundreds of miles from where the storm made landfall, as rainfall accumulated and roared into neighborhoods not prepared for calamity.
Last month, a slow-moving storm battered several countries in Eastern and central Europe, killing more than two dozen people. Also in September, floods in Africa killed at least 200, including those who died when a dam burst in Nigeria.
Spain experienced flooding over the summer, too — in addition to extreme heat and wildfire threats from longer-term drought. The low-pressure area responsible for the recent deluge is expected to keep swirling over the region through the end of the week. Although it is weakening, additional flooding rain is possible in Spain until it departs.
Prophetic Link:
“Behold, the Lord hath a mighty and strong one, which as a tempest of hail and a destroying storm, as a flood of mighty waters overflowing, shall cast down to the earth with the hand.” Isaiah 28:2
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