Spain floods latest: Deaths soar over 200 in Valencia amid fresh fears of flooding in Huelva – UK Times

Valencia’s match against Real Madrid this weekend has been postponed due to the deadly floods which killed at least 95 people in the Spanish region.

The Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) said LaLiga games, women’s matches and youth fixtures due to be played in the Valencian area have been called off.

Valencia has been declared a “disaster zone” by Spain’s prime minister authorities have warned against non-essential travel in the region.

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The tourist hotspot Palma on the island of Majorca is bracing itself for heavy rainfall and floods as the deadly storm, which has killed more than 200 people, heads towards the Balearic Islands.

Locals and tourists have been urged to remain inside after Spain‘s national weather service warned that the brunt of the storm was headed for Majorca.

Palma’s first deputy mayor, Javier Bonet told people to only leave their homes if it is “absolutely necessary”.

He said: “We are not on red alert, but it is essential to warn the population to avoid greater risks.”

An expat teacher living south of Valencia in Spain says he is unable to leave his town due to being “surrounded by water” following flash flooding in the region.

John Fahy, 55, who lives in a seaside town called Cullera, also reported there being no food in the supermarkets, with no new supplies expected for a while.

At least 158 people have been killed in Spain’s worst flooding disaster this century, with rescue workers searching for bodies in stranded cars and sodden buildings.

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Dani Sorní, a 22-year-old resident of Paiporta, the epicentre of the disaster, described the grave conditions. “This town is a cemetery, with bodies trapped under a metre-and-a-half of mud and under cars,” he told The Independent.

With the final death toll feared to be 400, survivors described a “tsunami” of water trapping victims in their cars and their fury over poor planning and slow response by authorities.

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There are so many people coming to help the hardest-hit areas that the authorities have asked them not to drive or walk there, because they are blocking the roads needed by the emergency services.

“It is very important that you return home,” said regional President Carlos Mazïn, who thanked the volunteers for their goodwill. The regional government has asked volunteers to gather at a large cultural center in the city Saturday morning to organize work crews and transport.

Electricity was at last restored for Chiva’s 20,000 residents on Thursday night, and there is still no running water. Local governments have been distributing water, food and basic necessities in towns across Valencia affected by the flash floods, and the Red Cross is using its vast network of aid to help those affected.

In Chiva, the Civil Guard police officers have been searching collapsed houses and the gorge for bodies, and directly traffic. Firefighters are helping ensure buildings were safe. Some 500 soldiers have been deployed in the Valencia region to deliver water and essential goods to those in need, and more are on the way.

Mud cakes her boots, splatters her leggings and the gloves holding her broom. Brown specks freckle her cheeks.

The mire covering Alicia Montero is the signature uniform of the impromptu army of volunteers who for a third day Friday shoveled and swept out the muck and debris that filled the small town of Chiva in Valencia after flash floods swept through the region. Spain’s deadliest natural disaster in living memory has left at least 205 people dead with untold numbers still missing, and countless lives in tatters.

As police and emergency workers continue the grim search for bodies, authorities appear overwhelmed by the enormity of the disaster, and survivors are relying on the esprit de corps of volunteers who have rushed in to fill the void.

While hundreds of people in cars and on foot have been streaming in from Valencia city to the suburbs to help, Montero and her friends are locals of Chiva, where at least seven people died when Tuesday’s storm unleashed its fury.

“I never thought this could happen. It moves me to see my town in this shape,” Montero said. “We have always had autumn storms, but nothing like this.”

The deadly floods left cars piled up like toys in streets, swallowed homes, and covered entire neighbourhoods in sludge and debris.

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Skies in Valencia were partially sunny on Friday, but the Spanish weather agency has issued alerts for strong rains in the region as well as the coast of Huelva, Andalusia; Tarragona, in Catalonia; and part of the Balearic Islands.

The storm cut power and water services on Tuesday night, but about 85% of 155,000 affected customers had their power back on by Friday, the utility said in a statement.

“This is a disaster. There are a lot of elderly people who don’t have medicine. There are children who don’t have food. We don’t have milk, we don’t have water. We have no access to anything,” a resident of Alfafar, one of the most affected towns in south Valencia, told state television station TVE. “No one even came to warn us on the first day.”

Rainstorms started on Tuesday (29 October) and continued into Wednesday. In the aftermath of the floods, cars have been piled on the street surrounded by a sea of debris from damaged buildings and structures.

At least 158 people have lost their lives after the flooding swept through streets, turning walkways into rivers and trapping people in their homes and on the roofs of cars.

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