Flood warning too late?

Spain searches for missing persons and culprits

(Bild: APA Pool/AFP )

Extreme rainfall has led to severe flooding in Spain: The search for bodies, missing persons and trapped people continued on Thursday following the disaster that left at least 150 people dead. A debate about possible culprits has also begun. Was there too little warning of the mega-flood?

In some places, as much rain fell in one day as normally falls in a year. Now the extent of the destruction is becoming increasingly visible. In Sedaví in the particularly affected Mediterranean region of Valencia, where the sun is now shining again after the masses of rain, piles of cars were pushed together by masses of water and blocked the entrances to houses.

Affected person complains: "They have given up on us"
Many residents were desperate. "We've been completely forgotten here," said one man, half crying in front of the camera of state television RTVE. "Nobody comes to move the cars or bring us anything. We have been abandoned." The people needed food, clothing and shovels to be able to shovel away the masses of earth themselves.

The full extent of the damage was still unclear on Thursday afternoon. Defense Minister Margarita Robles said that nothing was known about the fate of "many" people. In the particularly hard-hit Mediterranean region of Valencia, where almost all of the dead confirmed so far have been found, the military is now to carry out targeted searches for people in need in the towns of Paiporta and Masanasa.

The city of Valencia before (left) and after (right) the flood:

City leaders criticize that warning came too late
Although the full extent of the tragedy is not yet known and the search and rescue work will continue for some time, a debate has already begun in Spain about possible culprits. The media and the internet have been discussing whether the authorities should have warned citizens earlier or better. There has been criticism to this effect from several town hall bosses, for example. After all, we know that the "Dana" or "cold drop" weather phenomenon is dangerous. It occurs more frequently in the south and east of Spain at the beginning of autumn, when the first Atlantic lows with cold, damp air push over the warm Mediterranean.

Authority: "Brutal consequences" unpredictable
The regional government and experts rejected the accusations. Such "brutal consequences" cannot be predicted because they depend on various factors, said the respected meteorologist Francisco Martín León to the Europa Press news agency. The weather service Aemet had provided sufficient and timely information with severe weather warnings of levels three (yellow), two (orange) and one (red).

(Bild: AFP)

In fact, civil protection warnings were sent to the cell phones of everyone in the Valencia region at around 8.10 p.m. on Tuesday, according to the state broadcaster RTVE. However, the newspaper "El País" noted that it had already started raining hours earlier. It continued: "The Aemet weather service had already issued the highest warning level on Tuesday morning at around 7.30 a.m., which means very high risk.

Civil defense warning only when rivers had already burst their banks
However, the civil defense warnings were not issued until the evening, when the first rivers had already burst their banks. Despite the storms, many people were out and about in their cars, running the risk of being stranded or swept away by the current. The large Ford factory in Almussafes and the University of València had already sent their people home, as the newspaper wrote.

Numerous people still trapped
A spokesman for the Guardia Civil police unit estimated in the evening that 1,200 people were still trapped in cars, buses or trucks on the A3 and A7 highways. However, there were also many who did not want to leave their vehicles, he said. According to the report, 5000 vehicles - some abandoned by drivers and passengers - were stuck in Valencia. Many thousands of people have also been trapped in trains, houses, offices, schools and shopping centers since Tuesday evening.

Weather service speaks of "historic storm"
The extremely heavy rainfall on Tuesday caused rivers to burst their banks and turned roads into rivers, especially in the Mediterranean regions of Valencia, Murcia and Andalusia, which are also very popular with tourists. The Castilla-La Mancha region further inland was also affected. The weather service Aemet spoke of a "historic storm", the worst of its kind in the Valencia region, where the most deaths were recorded.