Valencia flash flooding

[MotherOfGodWeeFella]

The news and pictures/videos are apocalyptic. I spent a few days in Valencia last month with good friends. My friends who live there are all okay, although the brother of one spent the night on the roof of a business next to the A road they'd been driving on after abandoning their car which was then swept away by the flood waters. Another can't get to work as the bridge that links their town to the business park they work at is unsafe. A bridge we drove over just a few weeks ago.

The gota fria is a weather phenomenon I remember from living there - we had 48 hours of torrential rain then and there was some minor flooding, but this has been horrendous. So many have lost their lives, infrastructure is badly damaged, 120,000 with no shelter tonight.

Totally with you on this, the pictures are terrifying

The pictures / films / stories are incredible - I cannot get my head round it.

The damage has been immense. The power of water is frightening. I've donated to the Cruz Roja appeal tonight.

Yes, really terrible pictures from the Valencia region.
Water can really be a terrifying power.

I've been in Murcia region staying with my mum a few years ago when a Gota Fria hit.

It's truly on a scale I have never experienced.

They are regular occupancies in southern Spain at this time of year but this one was exceptional.

Luckily where my mum and her friends live only had heavy rain.

But you cannot comprehend the deluge on what is already parched land.

I feel for the farmers who have had their already compromised crops wiped out, and obviously those who have lost their lives 😞

It's absolutely horrible, poor poor people

I can't find this appeal online but want to donate. I love Spain, and the Spanish are wonderful people. This is heartbreaking for them.
Can you provide a link OP?

I haven't heard the term 'gota fria' before so I looked it up - it's a weather phenomenon along the Spanish Mediterranean coast and France in the autumn, with extremely high amounts of rain (not 'normal' extreme rain by our standards).

This article is very interesting:

murciatoday.com/what-is-a-gota-fr%C3%ADa_120983-a.html

Hi there - I came across it online and was able to donate from the UK. https://cercadeticruzroja.es/ayudaafectadosinundacionesdana
The Spanish Red Cross is actually on the ground helping to rescue people and look after those affected by the devastation.

I've experienced it, on a much lesser scale than what happened Tuesday/Wednesday this week. It started raining in the evening on a Friday and never stopped for four days. Our landlord provided us with heaters because it went really cold and every time you stepped outside you got soaking wet. The gulleys of the streets were overwhelmed and there was a lot of surface water and localised minor flooding. The locals knew all about it.

Yep, this one was a bit of an outlier when it comes to rainfall but it’s a weather phenomenon that happens now and then that can effect pretty much anywhere on or near the Mediterranean coast of Spain and France…it goes by slightly different names depending on exactly whereabouts you are and where the low pressure system is situated…

French Met office article on it here..

meteofrance.com/actualites-et-dossiers/actualites/inondations-en-espagne-valence-touchee-par-des-pluies

I remember in the midst of a Gota Fria having to go out and periodically backwash the pool.
I'd step out side and within seconds was soaked through.

It really is a kind of rain that if you haven't experienced it, it's unreal.

I visited a neighbour to check their generator was working, stopped for five minutes and by the time I left the road had fallen away.
I was lucky I was in a 4x4.

Got to my mums and obviously gates wouldn't open so had to climb over and just pray the car wasn't washed away.

Water pouring into every crevice and through every plug socket.

Fortunately for us it only lasted a couple of hours.

I've never forgotten or taken for granted the power of water.

A years worth of rain in 8 hours! Horrific.

So many of the affected places are ones I'm familiar with from using the C2 cercanias line.

There is damage to infrastructure in areas less badly affected, i.e. not actually flooded.

Aside from the terrible situation so many people are in, by the looks of the satellite images great swathes of agricultural land are affected and the Albufera probably polluted by all the dirt carried by the floodwater.

Heartening to see so many volunteers turning out to help. 10,000 troops and firefighters now being sent to help after the government realised the scale of everything. A woman was rescued from her car in Benetusser after being trapped for three days.

I'm a bit worried that my Dad and his partner are in the area and I can't get in contact with them. My Dad tends to go off line while he's on holiday so I'm trying not to worry and I'm not sure exactly where they were planning to stay. I'm his next of kin - would I be contacted somehow if the worst happened? I realise they are still rescuing people and recovering bodies so I probably just need to be patient (and hope he responds to my messages!) but I'm wondering if there's any way I can contact anywhere to somehow check on him.?

This is just such a massive tragedy. I’ve been to Valencia many times and it’s a lovely part of Spain, the people there are particularly warm and friendly. I can’t stop thinking about all the missing people presumed trapped underground in those massive car parks. The car park they’re worried about is the equivalent of L1 in Liverpool. It must have been like a tsunami coming towards them down the streets.

That just be really worrying for you @KickHimInTheCrotch - do to have any idea where they are? At all? Is probably contact the consulate in your shoes x

That must be a worry @KickHimInTheCrotch.

There's a lot of anger towards the authorities for not warning people in time and now not directing the rescue and clean up efforts adequately. Many volunteers found there was no plan as to what they were going to do so they asked people what they wanted help with and got on with it.

With more rain forecast there were bans on people going to certain areas - many of those badly affected which have received little help - except there were no police stopping pedestrians walking there. Now there are police they're not on every bridge over the Turia from the city centre so volunteers are just walking to the next bridge and crossing there.

The underground car park at the Bonaire shopping centre is being pumped out and debris cleared so the emergency services can check for victims of the flooding.

The river was diverted away from the city centre ("the Plan Sur") after flooding killed 81 and crippled the city in 1957. It wasn't until 1973 that the Plan Sur work was completed. It is that Plan Sur which has meant the areas devastated recently have been so badly affected.

It's awful that the authorities didn't warn people in time.

Why on earth not?

The Spanish King got pelted with mud by locals on a visit there today with taunts that he was 4 days too late. And he WAS 4 days too late - again, why?

Tbh the royals will be taking their lead from the government, but none of them banked on the angry reception. The PM was rushed away, the king and queen stayed and listened to people, their anger and their upset. The king is chairing a meeting on the response and what more needs to be done soon. The response has been terrible, compounding the failure to give sufficient warning.

How would they have warned people? Do they have that emergency text thing that we had trialled her a few years ago?

Yes, they sent out a mobile phone warning on Tuesday night - by which time it was too late, people were stuck...

I'm not sure what the mechanism is there, but places had already started flooding when official warnings were given, it was evening rush hour so lots of people on the roads and many had no chance to stay safe at home given the speed at which the situation escalated.

The response was totally inadequate and now they've stepped it up is disorganised. At least the government has announced measures to protect people's jobs and businesses. I've got friends there and they were in shock at what happened and that shock quickly turned to anger.

It does seem remarkable that no one seemed to predict that there was gonna be that much flooding. That video of the water racing down the road is so scary.