TERRIBLE STORM IN SPAIN: 51 DEAD, PROVISIONAL BALANCE

The huge storm that has hit eastern Spain since last weekend has so far caused 51 deaths, while the number of missing is "in the dozens", according to the first assessment made by the regional government of Valencia. In some places the rains reached 520 liters per square meter. Ravines and river basins that were normally dry have increased the flow to levels totally unknown until now

Among the deceased are two civil guards who were participating in the rescue of citizens in the middle of the storm, who were swept away by the waters. Practically all the towns in the province of Valencia were affected by the storm, while in the province of Castellón the damage was less. Most of the roads remain closed, and the railways are also not working because the storm swept away part of the tracks.

Many affected people are asking for help through their social networks and friends due to the impossibility of contacting 112 because the lines are overwhelmed - drivers are isolated, neighbours are perched on the upper floors of their homes, thousands of displaced people who were unable to return to their homes last night, cars piled up, flooded villages and roads cut off. The storm has mainly affected this province but its effects have reached others: in Mira (Cuenca) an 88-year-old woman has died after a river overflowed, and in Letur (Albacete) six missing people are being searched for. High-speed rail traffic between Madrid and Valencia is cut off. The Government has activated a crisis cabinet and parliamentary activity has been suspended.

The president of the Valencian Generalitat, Carlos Mazón, confirmed on Tuesday night the recovery of several "lifeless bodies", but avoided giving a number until contacting the relatives. By early Wednesday morning there were already 13 dead - five in Torrent (a married couple, two children and a baby), four in Paiporta (two men, a woman and a baby), one in Chiva (a man), one in Cheste (another man), one in Alfafar (a woman) and one in Alcudia (another man) - and at around nine in the morning the figure had risen to 51, although the authorities warn that the figure is not definitive and there are still many missing.

In daylight and with the water level falling in the most affected Valencian regions - Utiel-Requena, Hoya de Buñol l'Horta de Valencia and La Ribera, it is hoped to be able to reach the places where yesterday it was impossible or very difficult to continue the search for missing people.

The storm suffered by the Valencian Community is the worst recorded in this 21st century, with a greater impact than that of September 2019 and comparable to the two great storms of the eighties - that of October 1982 and that of November 1987 -, according to the first balance offered by the Valencian delegation of the State Meteorological Agency (Aemet) in its profile of X. Aemet recalls that the storm of 1982 "unloaded with torrential intensity further south than this one of 2024 has done". For its part, the one in November 1987 "also affected the southern half of Valencia". In October 2000 there was an episode of torrential rain, which is the one that “accumulated the most precipitation volume in the community, but it was a very prolonged storm, lasting several days, and less catastrophic than those of 1982, 1987 and 2024”. Therefore, it has been “a historic storm, on par with the great Mediterranean storms and among the three most intense in the Valencian Community”.

The alerts began to sound this Wednesday from seven in the morning, while criticism intensified on social networks due to the lack of foresight and warning to citizens about the violence of the storm. The meteorological service (AEMET) raised the warning level from orange to red, the maximum, at 8:00 on the southern coast of Valencia, where 90 liters had already accumulated in just one hour, reports Victoria Torres. It was a warning that had already come, due to meteorological phenomena already observed, not in anticipation. At 10:00 a.m., Aemet extended the red warning to a large part of this province, already in the midst of significant flooding. The red warnings were in force until 6:00 p.m., except for the coast until midnight.