Spanish residents appeal for help, after floods leave at least 205 dead

Three days after flash floods swept through several towns in Spain and killed at least 205 people, the initial shock was giving way to anger, frustration and a wave of solidarity on Friday.

Spanish emergency authorities raised the death toll to at least 205 victims, 202 of them in Valencia alone.

Many streets are still blocked by piled-up vehicles and debris, in some cases trapping residents in their homes.

Some places still do not have electricity, running water or stable telephone connections.

Residents turned to the media to appeal for help.

“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.”

“The situation is unbelievable. It’s a disaster and there is very little help,” said Emilio Cuartero, a resident of Masanasa, on the outskirts of Valencia. “We need machinery, cranes, so that the sites can be accessed. We need a lot of help. And bread and water.”

The security forces and soldiers are searching for an unknown number of missing people, many feared to still be trapped in wrecked vehicles or flooded garages.

Authorities are repeating over and over, more storms are expected. The Spanish weather agency issued alerts for strong rains in Tarragona, Catalonia, and part of the Balearic Islands.

Meanwhile, flood survivors and volunteers are beginning the titanic task of clearing an omnipresent layer of dense mud.

Residents in communities like Paiporta, where at least 62 people died, and Catarroja, have been walking miles to Valencia to get provisions, passing neighbours from unaffected areas who are bringing water, essential products or shovels to help remove the mud.

Juan Ramon Adsuara, the mayor of Alfafar, one of the hardest hit towns, said the aid is not nearly enough for residents trapped in an “extreme situation”.

“There are people living with corpses at home. It’s very sad. We are organising ourselves, but we are running out of everything,” he told reporters.

“We go with vans to Valencia, we buy and we come back, but here we are totally forgotten.”

Rushing water turned narrow streets into death traps and spawned rivers that tore through homes and businesses, leaving many uninhabitable.

Social networks have channelled the needs of those affected.

Some posted images of missing people in the hope of getting information about their whereabouts, while others launched initiatives such as Suport Mutu, or Mutual Support, which connects requests for help with people who are offering it.

Others organised collections of basic goods throughout the country or launched fundraisers.

Spain’s Mediterranean coast is used to autumn storms that can cause flooding, but this was the most powerful flash flooding in recent memory.

Scientists link it to climate change, which is also behind increasingly high temperatures and droughts in Spain and the heating up of the Mediterranean Sea.

Human-caused climate change has doubled the likelihood of a storm like this week’s deluge in Valencia, according to a partial analysis issued on Thursday by World Weather Attribution, a group made up of dozens of international scientists who study global warming’s role in extreme weather.

Spain has suffered through an almost two-year drought, making the flooding worse because the dry ground was so hard it could not absorb the rain.

In August 1996, a flood swept away a campsite along the Gallego river in Biescas, in the north east, killing 87 people.