valencia, spain
CNN
—
On Tuesday night, Adan Ortel Mol had an appointment at his salon in La Torre, Valencia, to cut a client’s hair starting at 7:30 p.m. But it may have saved Mol’s life when a customer called to cancel due to poor traffic conditions. Instead, he returned home and saw reports of cars floating in floodwaters in towns upriver.
“I said, ‘The water is coming this way,'” he told CNN as he scraped mud from his home. “I don’t think it will take long. I rushed to the balcony and looked around and there was water. It was already at my front door.”
There are no warnings. There are no alerts. It arrived on his phone about an hour later. A heavy rain warning has been issued to all residents of Valencia, telling them to stay at home. It’s too late for many people already trapped in rising floodwaters.
This is the worst natural disaster Valencia has experienced in decades. According to the Spanish Meteorological Service, a year’s worth of rain fell in less than eight hours. The water flowed down rivers and tributaries toward the Mediterranean Sea, uprooting cars and destroying bridges along the way. More than 200 people have died, and authorities have warned the death toll could rise further.
But it’s not unheard of. Valencia suffered a similar deadly flood in October 1957, caused by the same seasonal weather phenomenon known as Gota Fria or Cold Drop. In the disaster, the Turia burst an embankment in a crowded part of Valencia, killing dozens of people. It was so dangerous that a few years later the city spent millions of dollars rerouting the river.
So why was Valencia caught by surprise again?
Spain’s AEMET meteorological center in Valencia warned of heavy rain at 7:30 a.m. on Tuesday, raising the alert level to red for some areas and warning residents to stay off roads in case of flooding.
By 10:30 a.m., firefighters were rescuing people from floodwaters in inland towns such as Rombai. AEMET warned residents to be cautious even if their region receives little rainfall, as water flowing down from the mountains toward the sea is rapidly filling valleys and canyons.
At midday, Valencia’s regional president Carlos Mazon said the storm was calming, appearing to downplay the crisis and contradicting emergency services’ warnings. The statement was posted on X by his office, but has since been deleted.
By 5pm, Valencia’s emergency services were flooded with hundreds of pleas for help from across the region.
It wasn’t until 8 p.m. that cell phones rang, warning residents to stay indoors. It was too little, too late, even for those who might have had time to prepare downstream of the raging waters.
Politicians are blaming each other for failing to act quickly. But the people ultimately affected are residents like 70-year-old Valentin Manzaneque Fernández. he is furious.
“All the politicians are thugs. Are they clearing the mud here? Are they filling their pockets to give us this? On the lines of residents heading into the city for help. “The storm came in the morning. But the water didn’t arrive until 8 o’clock at night. Still, no one warned us. No one cared. I didn’t.
He slept outdoors for two nights on the roof terrace of a neighbor’s house before deciding to spend hours scraping mud and debris from his home in the outskirts of Sedavi to find food and water in Valencia.
The waters have receded, but recovery from the destruction will likely take weeks or months. Valencia’s highways remain closed or only partially usable, many choked by stranded vehicles. Spain’s railway authority, Adif, said the track was so badly damaged that it would take several weeks to resume service.
Mr. Mol is not waiting for government aid. When CNN spoke to him, he was covered in mud and using his broom and shovel to clear away debris from his parents’ home. Neighbors pitched in, and volunteers arrived with waterproof boots, buckets and shopping carts filled with food and water.
His salon business was completely ruined, he says. But he considers himself lucky. His parents survived the 1957 flood and he managed to evacuate them to safety during the disaster.
“It’s just the material things that are ruined. The most important thing is that my family is safe. We will get through it, my family will be okay,” he said. “All we can do now is get to work and clean.”
