Dozens of people have been killed by flash flooding in southeast Spain.
One Spanish town in Valencia is reported to have had a year's worth of rain in 8 hours.
Authorities have said several areas are cut off.
#spain #flooding #climate #climatechange #valencia #flashflooding
One Spanish town in Valencia is reported to have had a year's worth of rain in 8 hours.
Authorities have said several areas are cut off.
#spain #flooding #climate #climatechange #valencia #flashflooding
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NewsTranscript
00:00Yes, Paul, a true climate tragedy here. 70 people confirmed to have lost their lives
00:06and with dozens still missing, that number only expected to rise. We're here in ChamartĂn
00:12train station in Madrid where all trains to Valencia have been cancelled. Serious damage
00:18on the roads there. We've just heard Transport Minister Oscar Puente say that these trains
00:24will not be running for at least four days now. Overnight, in towns like Utiel, we saw,
00:32as you mentioned, a year's worth of rain fall in just eight hours. That caused torrents,
00:38that caused just serious destruction. Entire houses swept away, roads and bridges disappearing
00:45too. We've been talking to some people here in this train station and they have been just
00:52in tears. They cannot get in touch with loved ones, they cannot get home and right now in
00:58Valencia there are over 150,000 people without electricity. Here's more in our report. Streets
01:07turned into rivers, bridges washed away, lives lost. In the worst autumn storms in Spain
01:13this century. Some took refuge on top of cars and buildings, some were rescued by helicopter,
01:21many others weren't so lucky. The storm hit here in Madrid too, ripping hundreds of trees
01:28out of the ground. But nothing like the damage done in the east of the country, particularly
01:33in the Valencia province. This morning Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez returned from an official
01:38visit to India and immediately addressed the nation. We mustn't let our guard down because
01:46the weather front is still wreaking havoc and we can't say that this devastating episode
01:50is over. We're going to lend a hand and help those who can't get into their homes or who
01:55are looking for relatives or friends or loved ones. But most of all right now we're going
02:00to stand with those who are suffering the loss of their loved ones.
02:09Known as gota frĂa or cold drop, these rains are a feature of the climate along the Mediterranean
02:14coast. But the scale of the impact has taken Spain by surprise, with first-hand accounts
02:21describing apocalyptic scenes. The flash flood took dogs, horses, it took away everything.
02:29Another neighbour got trapped in his car and we still don't know whether he's okay or not.
02:36A house disappeared from the flood, a house at the entrance of the town just completely
02:40where he went. And there are at least two people who are still unaccounted for.
02:46Shock, fear and grief still grip the worst hit areas in a country still on red alert
02:52as these dangerous storms sweep across the nation.
02:58Pedro Sánchez warning that the country is not free of this yet. We've still seen rains
03:06falling heavily in places like Seville and Cádiz in the south in the Andalusia region.
03:12Also in AlmerĂa, the orange weather alerts there and red alerts in the Barcelona region.
03:19So Spain and Pedro Sánchez trying to get people to listen to the weather warnings.
03:26This is now a tragedy of international scale. We've seen European leaders like Ursula von
03:31Leyen say that the EU is standing by to help in any way that it can. The cost to the infrastructure
03:38and just the enormous damage that's been done is still secondary. The priority right now
03:44is trying to get to anyone who is still trapped in hard to reach regions and to stop what
03:50happened in Valencia from happening again in places like Barcelona and Seville.
03:57So this story still carrying on overnight, Paul and Louise.