Spain’s deadliest flood in decades kills at least 64 in Valencia

Dozens of videos posted on social media overnight showed people trapped by floodwaters, with some climbing into trees to avoid being washed away. The footage shows rescue workers carrying several women into the bucket of a bulldozer.

Trains to the cities of Madrid and Barcelona were canceled due to the flooding, and schools and other essential services were suspended in the worst-hit areas, officials said.

The region’s emergency services urged citizens to avoid all road travel and to follow further official advice, and in some places a military unit specializing in rescue operations was deployed to assist local rescuers.

Some parts of the region, such as the cities of Turís, Chiva or Bunol, recorded more than 400mm of rain, equivalent to the annual normal, prompting the state meteorological agency AEMET to declare a red alert level on Tuesday.

When the rain subsided there, the alert level was downgraded to amber, but as the storm moved northeast, the regional weather service in Catalonia issued a red alert for the area around Barcelona, ​​warning of strong winds and hail.

THE WORST FLOOD IN SPAIN SINCE 1996

Europe’s flood death toll was the worst since 2021, when at least 185 people died in Germany.

It is Spain’s deadliest flood since 1996, when 87 people died near a town in the Pyrenees.

King Felipe said the country’s emergency services were doing everything they could to help and expressed his condolences “for the loss of many lives.”

The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said on X that Europe is ready to help. “What we are seeing in Spain is devastating,” she wrote.

ASAJA, one of Spain’s largest farmers’ groups, said on Tuesday it expected significant damage to crops.

Spain is the world’s largest exporter of fresh and dried oranges, according to trade data provider Observatory of Economic Complexity, and Valencia accounts for about 60 percent of the country’s citrus production, according to the Valencia Institute of Agricultural Research.

Scientists say extreme weather events are becoming more frequent in Europe due to climate change. Meteorologists believe that the warming of the Mediterranean Sea, which increases the evaporation of water, plays a key role in increasing the torrential rains.

“Events of this type, which used to occur decades apart, are now becoming more frequent and their destructive power is increasing,” said Ernesto Rodríguez Camino, senior state meteorologist and member of the Spanish Meteorological Association.