Dramatic new photos have revealed the extent of damage to cars in Valencia swept away by deadly floods late last month that killed more than 200 people.
Nearly 100 people are still missing as a result of the flooding, which started after devastating heavy rain fell in the eastern Spanish region on October 28.
In a town just outside the city of Valencia, Chiva, more rain fell in eight hours than in the previous twenty months.
The floods took a heavy toll on the region’s infrastructure, dragging away countless cars in their wake.
The photos, taken in a junkyard outside the Valencian town of Paiporta, show rows and rows of still mud-covered vehicles stacked on top of each other. Many of them are missing important parts, including engine blocks, windshields and entire doors.
One aerial photo showed an ambulance, with a dented roof and covered in mud, buried beneath an Opel coupe.
Nearly 100 people are still missing as a result of the flooding, which started after devastating heavy rain fell in the eastern Spanish region on October 28.
The floods took a heavy toll on the region’s infrastructure, dragging away countless cars in their wake
The photos, taken in a junkyard outside the Valencian town of Paiporta, show rows and rows of still mud-covered cars stacked on top of each other
The piles were each as high as six vehicles, with the bottom cars often the most damaged.
Even though the flooding had subsided, the junkyard itself was still underwater, and many of the vehicles were left in stagnant, shallow pools of water.
The Spanish Insurance Consortium, a public-private entity that pays insurance claims for extreme risks such as floods, said it has received 44,000 claims for motor vehicles damaged by the floods, and that this number is expected to rise as more and more people return to their return homes.
The Spaniards are in an uproar over the response of the regional and national government to the floods.
As many as 130,000 people took to the streets of Valencia on Saturday to rage against the authorities.
Even though the flooding subsided, the junkyard itself was still underwater, and many of the vehicles were left in stagnant, shallow pools of water.
The piles were each as high as six vehicles, with the bottom cars often the most damaged
Many of them are missing important parts, including engine blocks, windshields and entire doors
Protesters, who accused those responsible of issuing warnings far too late, chanted: “We are covered in mud, you are covered in blood.”
By the time authorities sent alerts to mobile phones warning Spaniards to stay at home, many had already ended up on roads that were soon flooded, vastly increasing their risk of death.
Anna Oliver, one of the protest organizers, told Reuters: “We want to show our outrage and anger at the poor management of this disaster that has affected so many people.”
Protesters also clashed with police and smeared mud at Valencia City Hall towards the end of the weekend’s demonstrations.
The city’s mayor, María José Catalá, posted photos of broken windows and a video that appeared to show a fire being set on social media, adding: “Vandalism is not the solution.”
A view of wrecked cars stored in a junkyard outside Paiporta after being damaged by floods in Valencia, Spain on November 10, 2024
The region remains in crisis after the floods, which claimed 223 lives, with some people still unreported.
Graffiti is seen on the facade of the town hall during a demonstration to demand the resignation of Valencia Regional President Carlos Mazon in Valencia on November 9, 2024
Valencia City Council condemned the ‘vandalism’ and said the city had also been affected by the floods.
Scientists trying to explain what happened see two likely links to human-induced climate change.
One of these is that warmer air holds more rain and then transports it away. The other is possible changes in the jet stream – the river of air over land that moves weather systems around the world – that are producing extreme weather.
Climate scientists and meteorologists say the direct cause of the flooding is a cut-off lower-pressure storm system that migrated from an unusually wavy and stalled jet stream.
That system simply parked over the region and dropped rain. This happens often enough that in Spain they call them DANAs, the Spanish abbreviation for the system, meteorologists say.
Protesters confront police in front of the city hall during a demonstration to demand the resignation of Valencia Regional President Carlos Mazon in Valencia on November 9, 2024
Protesters kick the entrance to the City Hall as a flare is lit during a demonstration to demand the resignation of Valencia Regional President Carlos Mazon in Valencia on November 9, 2024
And then there is the unusually high temperature of the Mediterranean Sea. It had the warmest surface temperature on record in mid-August, at 28.47 degrees Celsius (83.25 degrees Fahrenheit), said Carola Koenig of the Center for Flood Risk and Resilience at Brunel University of London.
The extreme weather conditions came after Spain suffered prolonged droughts in 2022 and 2023. Experts say drought and flood cycles are increasing due to climate change.
“Climate change is deadly, and now we are unfortunately seeing it firsthand,” Spanish President Pedro Sánchez said after announcing a 10.6 billion euro aid package for 78 municipalities.