Spain grappled with the aftermath of catastrophic flooding on Thursday as authorities confirmed at least 158 people dead, urging residents in affected regions to stay indoors while search teams worked to locate missing persons in what has become one of the nation’s deadliest natural disasters in decades. The eastern region of Valencia suffered the most significant impact, with intense rains from a powerful Mediterranean storm sweeping people away, flattening homes, and damaging infrastructure.
By Thursday afternoon, 155 bodies had been recovered in the Valencia region alone, according to the rescue coordination center. Additionally, Castilla-La Mancha and Andalusia reported three fatalities on Wednesday. Officials fear the death toll could rise further, with some areas still unreachable and multiple residents unaccounted for.
“Please, stay at home and follow the calls of the emergency services,” urged Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez in a public address. “The priority right now is to save as many lives as possible,” he added, appealing particularly to the residents of the severely affected Valencia and Castellon provinces.
King Felipe VI echoed the warning, stressing that the emergency was “still not over.” Spain’s national weather service, AEMET, has maintained high alert levels for heavy rains in the eastern and southern parts of the country as more storms loom.
In the wake of this tragedy, Spain entered three days of national mourning, with flags at half-mast across government buildings and nationwide moments of silence observed. Local residents like Eliu Sanchez from a Valencia suburb recounted the terror as he watched a man swept away while trying to cling to a car for safety. “People were clinging to trees, but the force of the water was too strong. They were calling for help,” he said.
The storm dumped a year’s worth of rainfall in just eight hours in some regions on Tuesday, leaving mud-caked towns, overturned cars, and blocked roads in its wake. Drones and over 1,200 military personnel are working in the hardest-hit areas, searching for survivors and clearing debris. In Paiporta, a Valencia suburb, musician David Romero described the aftermath as a “catastrophe,” with businesses and homes destroyed “neighborhood after neighborhood.”
The storm’s devastation has also severely disrupted transportation, with rail and road access significantly impacted. Spain’s Transport Minister Oscar Puente announced that the high-speed line between Madrid and Valencia may take up to three weeks to reopen due to extensive damage. Valencia’s agricultural sector, a global hub for citrus production, has seen widespread destruction, with farmland flooded and infrastructure crippled.
Questions surrounding the adequacy of Spain’s warning systems have emerged, especially from residents in heavily impacted areas who felt they received alerts too late. Locals like Joaquin Rigon of Paiporta claim warnings were delayed until rivers had already overflowed, catching people off guard and causing casualties. The conservative head of the Valencia region appeared to place some responsibility on the central government, while the interior ministry countered that civil protection is primarily managed at the regional level in Spain’s decentralized system.
As the country mourns, meteorologists have linked the flooding to increasingly severe weather patterns, with scientists warning that human-driven climate change is contributing to more frequent and intense storms, raising the stakes for climate action and improved disaster preparedness in Spain.
