Flash Floods in Spain Leave More Than 60 Dead
The New York Times
More than 1,000 soldiers from Spain’s emergency response units have been deployed and the death toll is expected to rise in one of the worst natural disasters to hit the country in recent years.
At least 63 people have died and many others are missing after devastating flash floods hit eastern Spain, according to the local authorities, in one of the worst natural disasters to hit the country in recent years.
The floods — which submerged villages, cut off roads and caused problems with telecommunications — were triggered by a heavy deluge on Monday and Tuesday. More than a month’s worth of rain fell in less than 24 hours in some areas across southern and eastern Spain.
Almost all of the deaths confirmed so far by officials were in the eastern region of Valencia, where the storm battered villages and towns along the mountainous coastline. As daylight dawned on Wednesday, highways leading to the region’s capital, also named Valencia, were littered with debris and covered with mud, according to footage on Wednesday from local media.
One more woman died in Mira, a small town in the neighboring province of Castile-La Mancha, where at least six other people were missing in the municipality of Albacete, local officials said.
The floodwaters rushed into homes, sent cars piling up on submerged streets and disrupted travel and telecommunications across the eastern part of Spain.
As rescuers rushed on Wednesday to reach people waiting for help, residents in the hardest hit areas reported that they were having trouble with phone coverage and that electricity was down. Regional trains in Valencia on Wednesday were halted, and schools were closed in several places.
