How slow warnings, poor defences left Spain exposed to deadly floods
World
How slow warnings, poor defences left Spain exposed to deadly floods
PAIPORTA, Spain (Reuters) - The water was already knee-high on the ground floor of the hotel where Aitana Puchal had taken refugee when she received a text alert from the regional government of Valencia at 8 pm on Oct. 29 warning people to shelter in place from severe flash floods.
"We could have done with (the warning) about six hours earlier," said the 23-year-old, who had fled with other local residents and guests to the first floor of the hotel near the town of Paiporta. "We were all calming down a little from the panic and drying our feet."
Others were not so fortunate.
Carlos Martinez, another Paiporta resident, told local television the flood alert came when he was stranded in a tree "seeing bodies floating past."
Dozens of inhabitants of flooded communities told Reuters that by the time they received the regional government's alert, muddy water was already surrounding their cars, submerging streets of their towns and pouring into their homes.
After days of storm warnings from the national weather service since Oct 25, some municipalities and local institutions had raised the alarm much earlier. Valencia University had told its staff the day before not to come to work. Several town halls across the region of eastern Spain had suspended activities, shut down public facilities and told people to stay home.
But the mixed messages and confusion cost lives, dozens of local residents and experts told Reuters. More than 220 people died and nearly 80 are still missing in what is the most deadly deluge in a single European country since 1967, when floods in Portugal killed around 500.
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