<
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/oct/30/spain-floods-torrential-rain-deaths>
"At least 95 people have died in eastern, central and southern Spain after
torrential rains triggered the country’s deadliest floods in three decades,
unleashing torrents of muddy water that surged through cities, towns and
villages, trapping people in their homes, bringing down trees, and cutting off
roads and railway lines.
As the search for dozens of missing people continued, motorists were urged to
stay off the roads and away from swollen rivers amid warnings that the severe
weather was not over and that the number of deaths could still rise.
By Wednesday afternoon, the Valencian government’s emergency coordination
centre said the latest number of known deaths in the region was 92, while the
central government delegation in the neighbouring Castilla-La Mancha region
reported two deaths, including that of an 88-year-old woman in the city of
Cuenca. Another death was reported in Andalucía’s Málaga province.
The Valencian authorities urged people to keep clear of flooded or cut-off
roads, saying the emergency services needed access and that more flood water
could accumulate. More than 1,000 soldiers from Spain’s emergency response
units were deployed to the devastated areas. The central government also sent
nine forensic experts to Valencia to help with the task of identifying bodies.
Images on Spanish TV showed turbulent, muddy water coursing through the town of
Letur in the eastern province of Albacete on Tuesday, dragging cars through its
streets.
“Yesterday was the worst day of my life,” Ricardo Gabaldón, the mayor of Utiel,
a town in Valencia, told the national broadcaster
RTVE. He said several
people were missing in his town. “We were trapped like rats. Cars and rubbish
containers were flowing down the streets. The water was rising to 3 metres
[10ft],” he said.
One elderly couple were rescued from the upper storey of their house by a
military unit using a bulldozer, with three soldiers accompanying them in the
huge shovel.
Television reports ran videos from members of the public showing waters
flooding into the ground floors of flats, streams overflowing their banks and
at least one bridge giving way.
A high-speed train with nearly 300 people onboard derailed near Málaga,
although rail authorities said no one was hurt. The high-speed rail service
between Valencia city and Madrid was interrupted, as were several commuter
lines.
Tuesday’s floods were Spain’s worst since 1996, when 87 people died after
torrential rain hit a campsite in the Pyrenees mountains. Europe’s most recent
catastrophic floods came in July 2021, killing 243 people in Germany, Belgium,
Romania, Italy and Austria."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
