{"id":44290,"date":"2024-10-30T10:21:48","date_gmt":"2024-10-30T10:21:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/?p=44290"},"modified":"2026-07-05T17:17:29","modified_gmt":"2026-07-05T17:17:29","slug":"at-least-51-people-feared-dead-after-torrential-rain-and-floods-in-spain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/2024\/10\/30\/at-least-51-people-feared-dead-after-torrential-rain-and-floods-in-spain\/","title":{"rendered":"At least 51 people feared dead after torrential rain and floods in Spain"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

At least 51 people are feared to have died after torrential rains hit southern and eastern\u00a0Spain\u00a0on Tuesday, bringing flash floods that raged through towns and cut off roads and rail lines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the search continued for the missing, people were urged to stay off the roads amid warnings that the number of fatalities could rise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Valencian government\u2019s emergency coordination centre said its multiple victims protocol had been activated, adding: \u201cThe initial toll logged by different police and emergency services puts the provisional number of victims at 51 people. We are beginning the process of recovering and identifying the victims.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking on Wednesday morning, Valencia\u2019s regional president said it was still too early to provide a comprehensive death toll.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThese are very difficult hours for relatives and for the disappeared,\u201d said Carlos Maz\u00f3n. \u201cWe will confirm the number of victims over the coming hours but right now it\u2019s impossible to offer a precise figure. We\u2019re in shock.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Members<\/a>
Members of emergency services rescue people trapped in their homes after floods in Letur, Albacete. Photograph: V\u00edctor Fern\u00e1ndez\/AP<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The regional government also urged people to stay off flooded or cut-off roads, saying the emergency services needed access and that more flood water could still accumulate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More than 1,000 soldiers from Spain\u2019s emergency response units were deployed to the devastated areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Images on Spanish TV showed turbulent, muddy water surging through the town of Letur in the eastern province of Albacete on Tuesday, dragging cars through its streets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYesterday was the worst day of my life,\u201d Ricardo Gabald\u00f3n, the mayor of Utiel, a town in Valencia, told the national broadcaster RTVE. He said several people were still missing in his town.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe were trapped like rats. Cars and rubbish containers were flowing down the streets. The water was rising to 3 metres,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spain has experienced similar autumn storms in recent years, but nothing has compared to the devastation over the past two days.https:\/\/interactive.guim.co.uk\/uploader\/embed\/2024\/10\/embed-zip\/giv-4559nkgivATvB8S3\/<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A high-speed train with nearly 300 people on board derailed near M\u00e1laga, although rail authorities said no one was hurt. The high-speed train service between Valencia city and Madrid was interrupted, as were several commuter lines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spain\u2019s central government has set up a crisis committee to help coordinate rescue efforts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am closely following with concern the reports on missing persons and the damage caused by the storm in recent hours,\u201d Spain\u2019s prime minister, Pedro S\u00e1nchez, wrote on X, urging people to follow the advice of the authorities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBe very careful and avoid unnecessary trips,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was later announced that S\u00e1nchez would chair a crisis meeting on the floods in Madrid at midday and make a statement at 11.30am. Spain\u2019s congress also held a minute\u2019s silence to commemorate the dead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

King Felipe also offered his support to the families of the dead and missing, saying he was \u201cheartbroken\u201d by the news of the flooding and its fatalities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m sending strength, encouragement and all the necessary support to all those affected,\u201d he said. \u201cWe recognise and appreciate all the local and regional authorities and the emergency and security services as they continue with the titanic task they have been carrying out since the very first moment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By 10am on Wednesday morning, the rains in Valencia had subsided. But more storms were forecast through Thursday, according to Spain\u2019s national weather service, with the rains forecast to move to the north-east of the Iberian peninsula.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The intense rain has been attributed to a phenomenon\u00a0known as the\u00a0gota fr\u00eda<\/em>, or \u201ccold drop\u201d, which occurs when cold air moves over the warm waters of the Mediterranean Sea. This creates atmospheric instability, causing warm, saturated air to rise rapidly, leading to the formation of towering cumulonimbus clouds in a matter of hours and dumping heavy rain across eastern parts of Spain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scientists say extreme weather such as heatwaves and storms is becoming more intense as a result of the climate crisis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At least 51 people are feared to have died after torrential rains hit southern and eastern\u00a0Spain\u00a0on Tuesday, bringing flash floods that raged through towns and cut off roads and rail lines. As the search continued for the missing, people were urged to stay off the roads amid warnings that the number of fatalities could rise. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":44291,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_post_source_name":"","_post_source_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[461,12],"tags":[4836,4321,12270,5520,9331,7711,6693,8440,5262,6083,7234,10418,5241,6738,7319,5787,2264,6685,10598,5331,5973,9833,6831,1993,12187,4766,7964,1565,421,3805,3174,8598,10716,7398,9162,5655,1383,5618,4293,10480,7972,10263,11610,9616,5353,12605,1742,9539,8869,9085,10353],"class_list":["post-44290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking-news","category-world-news","tag-access","tag-broadcaster","tag-carlos-mazon","tag-cars","tag-city","tag-cold","tag-congress","tag-crisis","tag-cut","tag-dead","tag-death","tag-death-toll","tag-died","tag-families","tag-fern","tag-flood","tag-government","tag-heatwaves","tag-homes","tag-mayor","tag-mediterranean","tag-meeting","tag-missing","tag-my-life","tag-n","tag-national-weather-service","tag-north","tag-pedro","tag-police","tag-president","tag-prime-minister","tag-rail","tag-rain","tag-rains","tag-scientists","tag-security","tag-security-services","tag-soldiers","tag-spain","tag-spanish","tag-storm","tag-titanic","tag-torrential-rains","tag-train","tag-trapped","tag-uk","tag-valencia","tag-victims","tag-water","tag-weather","tag-x"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44290","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44290"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44290\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44292,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44290\/revisions\/44292"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}