Horror moment woman is swept away by torrential rain in Spain in one of country’s worst natural disasters
THE horrifying moment a woman was swept away in the deadly flash floods in Spain has been captured on camera.
Floods have swept across the southern and eastern parts of the country including Malaga and Valencia after severe storms struck the region on Tuesday.
Authorities confirmed on Wednesday morning that at least 72 people have been killed and more storms are expected on Thursday.
The torrents of floodwater have rendered the streets of Valencia and the surrounding region unrecognisable with fast-flowing rivers taking out cars and other objects in their path.
One shocking piece of footage shows a woman in Valencia caught in the floodwaters.
The surging water swept her off her feet as she desperately tried to hold on to anything in her path.
The woman who has not been identified could be seen screaming and trying to swim as helpless onlookers made desperate attempts to grab her hand from nearby balconies.
At one moment she successfully held onto a lamppost but the torrent quickly ripped her away sending her further down the street.
It is not known if she has survived.
‘WORST NIGHT’
“Yesterday was the worst day of my life,” Ricardo Gabaldó, the mayor of Utiel, a town in Valencia told RTVE.
“We were trapped like rats. Cars and trash containers were flowing down the streets. The water was rising to three metres.”
Rescuers are continuing to scour affected areas for survivors, with some being rescued by helicopter from the rooves of buildings.
One woman was filmed clinging to her dog in the floodwaters as she tried to stay afloat.
Thankfully, rescuers managed to winch her out just before she succumbed to the water.
However, for others, help was too late.
“There are bodies and bodies continuing to appear in places we hadn’t been able to access before,” The President of the Valencia region Carlos Mazon said.
A baby was listed as one of the 74 confirmed fatalities from the floods but officials have said the true number of deaths is “impossible” to say.
Rivers started to burst their banks around 1 pm on Tuesday, with Chiva, a town near Valencia having been hit with over a year’s worth of rain in just eight hours.
With more storms on the way, there are fears the Cirat-Vallet dam in Callstellon, north of Valencia may burst after officials said they could not open the gates.
Evacuation warnings have been put in place for places around the dam and homes along the Mijares River
More than 1,000 soldiers have been deployed as the country faces one of the worst natural disasters in its history.
It is the worst flood-related catastrophe the nation has seen since 1996 when 87 people died and 180 were injured in a flash flood near Biesca in the Pyrenees.
Why was Spain hit by flooding?
Spain was hit by flash floods after the east of the country was hit by a meteorological phenomenon known as a ‘DANA’.
A DANA, or a ‘cold drop’ is technically a system where there is an isolated depression in the atmosphere at high levels.
In layman’s terms, more warm and moist Mediterranean air than usual was sucked high into the atmosphere after a cold system hit the country from the south.
The easterly wind then pushed all those clouds and rain into eastern Spain.
Three to four months of rain fell in some places over the space of 24 hours.
The DANA system hit southern Spain as it arrived from Morocco yesterday and is now expected to head west over southern Portugal.
In addition to this, the death toll appears to be the worst in Europe from flooding since 2021 when at least 185 people died in Germany.
Spain’s defence minister Margarita Robles called the flooding in the Valencia region “an unprecedented phenomenon.”
“Yesterday, during the night, the emergency services were in the area, but the avalanche of water was tremendous,” she told reporters.
DESPERATE SEARCH
Desperate families are appealing to media outlets in the country to track down missing people who are feared dead.
“I need him to phone me. He’s my little boy. I need someone to find him,” a mother named Loli pleaded in a phone call to Telecinco.
She had last spoken to her 25-year-old son Daniel at 10 pm on Tuesday in Robarroja de Turia.
“I spoke to him for the last time at 10 pm and I know he then spoke to his girlfriend but that’s the last we know,” she said.
“I just want him to phone me or his dad or his girlfriend and say, ‘I’m Okay.’
“He’s only 25, he’s got his whole life ahead of him.”
An emergency hotline has been set up with police urging people to call 9006 5112 to report anyone who is missing.
Spain’s King Felipe and Queen Letizia said they were devastated by the flooding.
They said: “Strength, courage and all the necessary support for all those affected.
“Our warmest message and recognition to local and regional authorities and all emergency services, armed forces and state security forces and corps for the titanic work they have been doing from the very beginning.”