On social networks, television and the airwaves of Spanish national radio, the testimonies of people without news of their loved ones since the previous night, filled the airwaves with their anguished voices, on Wednesday, October 30. According to a provisional report from the emergency services, at least ninety-two people died during the terrible floods recorded in the Valencian Community, in the afternoon and evening of Tuesday, October 29 to Wednesday, October 30, and another three in neighboring regions. A toll that could increase even more.
Dozens of people are still missing and the electricity outages that still affect nearly 150,000 homes, dozens of roads cut off and bridges down have greatly complicated communication with certain areas. The Spanish government, which created a crisis unit and deployed a thousand members of the Military Emergency Unit, declared three days of mourning.
“My cousin’s nephew is missing. The vehicle in which he was traveling was swept away by the swollen river. We have no news explain to World by phone Lola Tomás, a resident of Letur, a town of 1,000 inhabitants located in the province of Albacete, with a trembling voice, without much hope of finding him alive. The water suddenly rose and destroyed the entire historic center in its path. “It’s a disaster.”adds this 57-year-old teacher.
At least five people are still missing in Letur, where an 88-year-old woman was found dead in the afternoon. On Tuesday, more than 400 liters of water per square meter fell in the region, before rushing down the Ramblas, a kind of natural water evacuation channel from the mountains. Normally dry, these rivers have overflowed this time, sweeping away houses and vehicles in their wake with a force that all the elders of the commune claim to have never seen before. As of Wednesday night, the city was still without electricity or drinking water. The municipality is now concerned about the structural damage that the flood may have caused to the buildings that were left standing.
Cars transported through muddy water
This dantesque scenario was reproduced in the municipalities of Utiel, Requena, Chiva, Cheste and Picanya, causing a barrage of images of devastation. And the water that fell in the interior of Valencia finally fell with greater violence towards the south of Valencia. The diversion of the Turia River, built after a flood that caused 300 deaths in 1957, allowed the center of Spain’s third largest city to escape the floods. But not in the southern districts.
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