Why the floods in Valencia proved so deadly

As Spain grapples with floods that have hit the southeast of the country this week, many are wondering why the death toll, which now stands at more than 200, is so high.

Almost all of the confirmed deaths so far have occurred in the Valencia region on the Mediterranean coast.

Some areas were particularly devastated: the city of Paiporta, population 25,000, reported at least 62 deaths.

Various factors, including drivers who got stuck in their cars, poor planning by officials and extreme rainfall that has been exacerbated by climate change are likely to have contributed.

The civil protection agency, overseen by the regional government, issued an emergency alert on Tuesday for the phones of people in and around Valencia after 8:00 p.m. local time (19:00 GMT), by which time the floodwaters had run high. growing in many areas and in some cases already wreaking havoc.

A large number of those killed were on the road, in many cases returning from work, when the floods hit.

Video footage shows how a first wave of floodwater swept through Paiporta while cars were still moving. Although rainfall was heavier in other areas, such as Utiel and Chiva, the geography of Paiporta, with a ravine running through its center, made the impact of the flood particularly devastating.

Mayor Maribel Albalat said the city was poorly prepared from an urban point of view, with many apartments on the ground floor. Six residents of a nursing home died when flood water entered the building while they were still on the ground floor. She also suggested there was an element of complacency.

“In Paiporta we don’t tend to have floods and people are not afraid,” she said.

Garages were a death trap.

“When it rains, people normally go down to the garages to get their cars out in case their garage is flooded,” Ms Albalat said.

This is apparently what happened in the La Torre district, on the outskirts of Valencia, where the bodies of seven people were recovered from the garage of a residential building.

The A3 motorway linking Valencia to Madrid was one of many roads where drivers were left stranded as water levels rose, leaving them unsure whether it was safer to stay in their vehicle or not.

“It’s almost certain that there are more people who died because the water washed away people who got out of their cars,” one survivor told Telecinco. Another survivor said the water was up to his chest.

An eyewitness described seeing a driver get out of the car and tie his seat belt to a lamppost to avoid being washed away. It is not known if he survived.

Chiva’s mayor, Fort Amparo, warned Thursday that there were “hundreds of overturned cars nearby and they will definitely have people inside.”

On Thursday morning, the Guardia Civil shared tips on how to escape from a car during a flood on social networks. People caught in the floods are advised to try to escape through car windows and windscreens.

Other factors also seem to explain why Valencia was so devastated by the weather phenomenon.

Much of the worst-hit area, in and around the country’s third-largest city, is densely populated.

The lack of rainfall for the rest of the year left the soil in many areas of eastern and southern Spain unable to absorb rainwater effectively.

Pablo Aznar, a researcher at the Socio-Economic Observatory of Floods and Droughts (Obsis), warned that much of the affected area had suffered what he described as “unfettered development”, with many areas covered with impermeable materials, which ” increases the danger’. caused by these events”.

The warming climate is also likely to have contributed to the severity of the floods.

In a preliminary report, the World Weather Attribution (WWA), an international group of scientists investigating the role of global warming in extreme weather, found that the rainfall that hit Spain was 12% heavier due to climate change and that the meteorological phenomenon experienced is twice as great. probable.