More than 90 percent of homes in eastern Spain affected by catastrophic floods that killed at least 205 people had their power restored on Friday, the utility company Iberdrola said, although thousands still lack electricity in isolated areas that are difficult for men to access. Rescue access.
Spanish rescuers opened a temporary morgue in a conference center and made desperate efforts to reach areas that remained isolated on Friday as the death toll rose to 205 people, most of them in Valencia, the eastern region that bore the brunt of the devastation.
About 500 soldiers were deployed to search for people still missing and help survivors of the storm, which prompted a new weather warning in the Balearic Islands, Catalonia and Valencia, where rain is expected to continue over the weekend.
Officials said the death toll was likely to continue to rise. It is already Spain’s worst flood-related disaster in modern history and the deadliest to hit Europe since the 1970s.
Emergency services working to evacuate cars piled up at the entrance of a flooded tunnel in the suburbs fear finding more trapped bodies.
A rescue worker told state television: “We are trying to remove the vehicles little by little to see if there are victims.” “We don’t know.”
Resident Isabel Santiago, 49, watched the scene with tears in her eyes: “There were many losses, and they could have been avoided. There must have been a lot of people in this tunnel because they did not have time to get out. This is inhumane.”
The regional government of Valencia said people seeking help should gather at the capital’s Arts and Sciences Museum complex at 7 a.m. on Saturday to facilitate coordination.
Regional leader Carlos Mazón on Friday urged volunteers to stay put, saying the large numbers on the streets were hampering rescue and clean-up efforts.
In order to avoid any road closures, the government said that all movements in the area will be restricted on Saturday, except for major reasons such as health, legal or work issues.
“You are a great example, a great explosion of solidarity. “We still need you,” he said in a video posted on his X account.
In Alfavar, a suburb outside the city of Valencia, Spain’s third-largest, drone footage showed the tangled wreckage of dozens of vehicles strewn across railway tracks.
“Everything was destroyed – shops, supermarkets, schools, cars,” said Patricia Villar, a local resident. Nearby, a boat carried by flood waters lay on a muddy street corner.
Residents and volunteers clean up an area affected by flooding in Bayporta, near Valencia, Spain, Friday, November 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Alberto Saiz).
A year’s worth of rain fell in just eight hours on Tuesday evening, destroying roads, railway lines and bridges while rivers burst their banks.
The floods also inundated thousands of hectares of farmland in the region, which produces nearly two-thirds of Spain’s citrus fruits – the world’s largest exporter of oranges.
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“The scale of the disaster is without precedent,” Transport Minister Oscar Puente told local television.
While the waters have calmed in most parts of Valencia, emergency services have not yet been able to reach some areas due to closed roads. One of the residents said that among them was Al-Abbal, a neighborhood close to Al-Fafar.
Supplies of bottled drinking water were reduced in some places and residents of the Valencia suburb of Bayporta took turns guarding stores after authorities said 50 people had been arrested for looting.
Rebuilding and recovering from the floods will take time, said Amber Gonzalez, 72, a resident of Bayporta, standing on a disturbed street as neighbors and volunteers did what they could to clean up in Bayporta.
“No matter how much help we get, it is not enough,” she said. “This is not going to be fixed in a month or two.”
As the death toll rose, a temporary morgue was set up at the Feria Valencia convention center on the outskirts of Valencia, and the first bodies began arriving early Friday, emergency services said.
The number of deaths sparked anger and sadness in Spain, with some people accusing the authorities of being poorly prepared and not warning people in time about the dangers posed by the storm.
People walk along train tracks heading towards Valencia in an area affected by flooding in Cedavi, Spain, Friday, November 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez).
Valencia resident Hector Bolivar, 65, wondered why a text message alert was only sent at 8pm when heavy rains had begun several hours earlier.
Mazzone said all disaster management protocols were being followed and authorities had begun warning people as of Sunday.
The death toll due to floods is the highest in Europe since 1970, when 209 people died in Romania.
Scientists say extreme weather events are becoming more frequent in Europe and elsewhere due to climate change. Meteorologists believe that the rising temperature of the Mediterranean Sea, which increases water evaporation, plays a major role in increasing the intensity of heavy rains.
“With regard to these environmental disasters, we pray for the people of the Iberian Peninsula, especially the Valencian community, which was ravaged by the storm,” Pope Francis said Friday as he led prayers in St. Peter’s Square in the Vatican.
—(Reporting by David Latona, Ana Cantero, Raul Cadenas and Eva Manez – Preparing by Muhammad for the Arabic Bulletin) (Additional reporting by Pietro Lombardi) Writing by Charlie Devereaux; Edited by Andrei Khalip, Helen Popper, Hugh Lawson, and Sandra Maler
