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A furious crowd chanted “murderer” and tossed mud at King Felipe as he visited the areas worst affected by Spain’s worst ever flood-related disaster.
Footage shows the moment the King was surrounded by angry locals who are still reeling as the death toll from the floods reaches 217 – and is likely to continue climbing.
Police officers on horseback had to keep back the crowd of several dozen.
The King and his wife, Queen Letizia, visited Valencia on Sunday with prime minister Pedro Sanchez. They met local officials, emergency responders and civilians.
Thousands of troops have been mobilised in what Spanish prime minister Pedro Sanchez called the “biggest operation by the Armed Forces in Spain in peacetime”.
It comes as fears grow that large numbers of bodies remain trapped underwater – including in the entirely submerged underground car park of Bonaire shopping centre, one of the largest in Spain.
Specialist scuba divers are now searching for bodies in the car park.
Eduardo Martinez, who works in the shopping centre, told ElDiario.es that some “ignored” advice from a security guard not to collect their cars from an underground car park when the flooding began.
How Spain’s ‘catastrophic’ floods led to over 200 deaths – explained through pictures
The deadly floods left cars piled up like toys in streets, swallowed homes, and covered entire neighbourhoods in sludge and debris.
Read the full article here:
Holly Evans4 November 2024 05:00
Expat teacher in Spain still trapped after flood waters surround town and food runs out
An expat teacher living south of Valencia in Spain says he is unable to leave his town due to being “surrounded by water” following flash flooding in the region.
John Fahy, 55, who lives in a seaside town called Cullera, also reported there being no food in the supermarkets, with no new supplies expected for a while.
“We can’t leave our town because it’s flooded all around,” he said.
“There’s no-one in the shops in Cullera because there’s no food and there won’t be for a while.”
Read the full article here:
Holly Evans4 November 2024 04:00
Watch: Rescuers wade through chest-high water as death toll exceeds 200
Holly Evans4 November 2024 03:00
Angry crowds throw mud and hurl insults at King of Spain as search continues for flood victims
“It was known and nobody did anything to avoid it,” a young man told the king, who insisted on staying to talk to people despite the turmoil, while the prime minister Pedro Sanchez had quickly withdrawn.
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Holly Evans4 November 2024 02:00
Has this happened before?
Spain’s Mediterranean coast is used to autumn storms that can cause flooding, but this episode was the most powerful flash flood event in recent memory.
Older people in Paiporta, at the epicenter of the tragedy, say Tuesday’s floods were three times as bad as those in 1957, which caused at least 81 deaths. That episode led to the diversion of the Turia watercourse, which meant that a large part of the town was spared of these floods.
Valencia suffered two other major DANAs in the 1980s, one in 1982 with around 30 deaths, and another one five years later that broke rainfall records.
The flash floods also surpassed the flood that swept away a campsite along the Gallego river in Biescas, in the northeast, killing 87 people, in August 1996
Holly Evans4 November 2024 01:00
Latest pictures from Valencia
Holly Evans4 November 2024 00:00
‘Cold drop’ and flood defences: What caused the devastating flash flooding in Spain?
Dubbed “the flood of the century”, rainfall on Tuesday saw wide swathes of southern and eastern Spain completely destroyed by torrents of muddy water.
With cars tumbling down streets in Valencia and village roads turned to rivers, the army was drafted in to assist in the ongoing rescue operation.
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Holly Evans3 November 2024 23:00
What happened on Tuesday and Wednesday?
The storms concentrated over the Magro and Turia river basins and, in the Poyo riverbed, produced walls of water that overflowed riverbanks, catching people unaware as they went on with their daily lives on Tuesday evening and early Wednesday.
In the blink of an eye, the muddy water covered roads and railways, and entered houses and businesses in towns and villages on the southern outskirts of Valencia city. Drivers had to take shelter on car roofs, while residents took refuge on higher ground.
Spain’s national weather service said that in the hard-hit locality of Chiva, it rained more in eight hours than it had in the preceding 20 months, calling the deluge “extraordinary.” Other areas on the southern outskirts of Valencia city didn’t get rain before they were wiped out by the wall of water that overflowed the drainage canals.
When authorities sent alerts to mobile phones warning of the seriousness of the flooding and asking people to stay at home, many were already on the road, working or covered in water in low-lying areas or underground garages, which became death traps.
Holly Evans3 November 2024 22:00
Anger directed at officials who struggled to respond to enormity of disaster
More anger has been fueled by the inability of officials to respond quickly to the aftermath. Most of the cleanup of the layers and layers of mud and debris that has invaded countless homes has been done by residents and thousands of volunteers.
“We have lost everything!” someone shouted.
Shouts on Sunday included demands aimed at regional Valencia President Carlo Mazïn, whose administration is in charge of civil protection, to step down, as well as “Where is Pedro Sanchez?”
“I understand the indignation and of course I stayed to receive it,” Mazïn said on X. “It was my moral and political obligation. The attitude of the king this morning was exemplary.”
Holly Evans3 November 2024 21:00
Crashing waves in a hilltop village, a night of terror from Spain’s floods
Irene Cuevas will never forget the sound of the waves crashing below her apartment’s balcony.
If only there had been a flash of lightning in the darkness to let her glimpse what sounded like a roaring sea.
“It was a constant fear because we didn’t have light to see by,” Cuevas told The Associated Press. “We could hear the roar of the waves, which was unbelievable. The street was completely flooded and we were hoping for some lightning so that we could at least see what situation we were in. It was all waves, currents everywhere.
“We have that sound of the waves burned in our memory.”
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Holly Evans3 November 2024 20:20
Read More: Spain latest: Furious crowd pelts King Felipe with mud in crisis-hit Valencia visit
