Mưa lớn và lụt ở Tây Ban Nha, hơn 200 ngươì chết. Valencia thiệt hại nặng nề

https://web.de/magazine/panorama/spanien-aufraeumen-katastrophe-40296102

Too little, too late: How Valencia’s residents were trapped with no warning in Spain’s deadly floods

Atika Shubert
By Atika Shubert, CNN
4 minute read
Updated 6:49 PM EDT, Fri November 1, 2024


Boats and cars block roads after deadly flooding in Spain
00:38 - Source: CNN
Valencia, Spain
CNN
—
Adan Ortell Mor had a 7:30 p.m. appointment to cut a client’s hair at his salon in La Torre, Valencia, on Tuesday night. But when the client called to cancel because traffic was bad, it may have saved Mor’s life. Instead, he went home and saw reports of cars floating in floodwaters in a town upriver.

“I said to myself: That water is headed this way,” he told CNN as he shoveled mud from his home. “I don’t think it’ll take long. I rushed to the balcony, looked around the side and there the water was coming. It was already at my door.”

No warning. No alerts. That came about an hour later on his mobile phone. A blaring alarm sent to all residents in Valencia, telling them of heavy rains and to stay at home. Far too late for the many people already trapped in rising floodwaters.


This is the worst natural disaster Valencia has seen in decades. A year’s worth of rain dumped in less than 8 hours, according to Spain’s meteorological agency. The water came rushing down the rivers and tributaries towards the Mediterranean Sea, picking up cars and destroying bridges along the way. More than 200 people have been killed, with authorities warning the death toll is likely to rise.

But it is not unprecedented. Valencia suffered a similar deadly flood in October 1957 caused by the same seasonal weather phenomenon known as a Gota Fria or a Cold Drop. That disaster killed dozens of people when the Turia burst its banks in the crowded neighborhoods of Valencia city. It was so deadly that the city spent millions to reroute the river years later.

People try to clear mud from a house on October 31, 2024 after flash floods affected La Torre, in Valencia, eastern Spain.
People try to clear mud from a house on October 31, 2024 after flash floods affected La Torre, in Valencia, eastern Spain. Jose Jordan/AFP/Getty Images
So, how did Valencia get caught unawares again?


Spain’s AEMET weather center in Valencia warned of heavy rainfall at 7:30 a.m. on Tuesday, raising the alert level to red in some areas and warning residents to stay off the roads in case of floods.

By 10:30 a.m., firefighters in interior towns like Llombai were rescuing people from the floods. AEMET warned residents to be vigilant, even if there was little rainfall in their areas, as ravines and gullies were quickly filling with water streaming down from the mountains toward the sea.

At noon, Valencia’s regional president, Carlos Mazon, seemed to downplay the crisis by saying the storm was subsiding, contradicting the warnings of emergency services. The statement was posted by his office on X but has since been deleted.

By 5 p.m., Valencia’s emergency services were swamped by hundreds of pleas for help throughout the region.

It was at 8 p.m. that cell phones finally buzzed with the public alert telling residents to stay indoors. Much too little, much too late, even for those downstream of the raging water who might otherwise have had time to prepare.

Politicians are pointing fingers at each other for the failure to act quickly enough. In the end, however, it’s residents like 70-year-old Valentín Manzaneque Fernández who are suffering the consequences. He is furious.

Cars are piled in the street with other debris in Valencia, Spain after flash floods hit the region.
Related article
Spain hit by deadliest floods in decades. Here’s what we know

“The politicians are all scoundrels. Are they out here there removing mud? They fill their pockets to give us this?” he told CNN as he joined the line of residents walking into the city for help. “The storm hit in the morning. But the water didn’t get to us until 8 in the evening. Yet, nobody warned us, nothing. Nobody cared.”

He spent two nights sleeping outdoors on a neighbor’s roof terrace before deciding to slog through hours of mud and debris from his home in the suburb of Sedavi to get food and water in Valencia city.

A man reacts in front of houses affected by floods in Utiel, Valencia, on October 30, 2024.
A man reacts in front of houses affected by floods in Utiel, Valencia, on October 30, 2024. Manu Fernandez/AP
The waters have receded, but recovering from the destruction will take weeks and months. Valencia’s highways remain blocked or only partially usable, many choked by washed-up vehicles. Train tracks are so badly damaged that service is not likely to resume for weeks, according to Adif, Spain’s rail authority.

Mor isn’t waiting for any government help. When CNN spoke to him, he was caked in mud, clearing out the debris piled up in his family home with his own broom and shovel. Neighbors were pitching in too, while volunteers arrived carrying water proof boots, buckets and a grocery cart filled with food and water.

His salon business, he says, is completely ruined. But he counts himself lucky. His parents survived the 1957 flood and he managed to get them to safety during this disaster.

“It’s just material stuff that got ruined. The main thing is, my family is safe. We will get through it, my family is all right,” he said. “All we can do now is get to work and clean up.”

Spain's PM orders 10,000 troops and police to flood-hit Valencia

02.11.2024

Christy Cooney
BBC News
Mark Lowen
Southern Europe correspondent
Reporting fromValencia
Reuters People seen sweeping muddy floodwater from a street in Valencia. Damaged furniture can also be seen piled up. Reuters
Spain's prime minister has ordered 5,000 more troops and 5,000 police officers and civil guards to the Valencia region as residents criticise local authorities over their response to catastrophic flooding.

The death toll on Saturday rose to 211 people, with most fatalities in and around Valencia, Pedro Sánchez announced. The toll is expected to rise further.

Heavy rains that began on Monday caused floods that destroyed bridges and covered towns with mud, cutting off communities and leaving them without water, food or electricity.

Sánchez said the deployment of emergency services and the army was Spain's largest in peacetime, in response to one of the worst floods in Europe this century.


The prime minister said he was aware "the response that is being given is not enough" and acknowledged "severe problems and shortages".

He said there are still "desperate people searching for their relatives. People who cannot access their homes. Homes destroyed and buried by mud. I know we have to do better."

Weather warnings remain in force in north-eastern and southern Spain through Sunday, while another was issued in the Balearic Islands for Saturday.

Around 1,700 soldiers are already working on search and rescue operations in the Valencia region, although hope of finding more survivors is dwindling.

Part of the focus is on pumping water out of underground tunnels and car parks, where it is feared people were trapped as water surged in.

Paco Polit, a journalist in Valencia, told the BBC the new troops will bring in much needed heavy machinery, bulldozers, trucks, and help to improve the speed and organisation of the rescue efforts.

Sánchez said some places are still "suffering from lack of basic resources".

"We know that aid is taking time to reach certain locations. There are still garages and homes that are blocked and people are still trapped," he said.

He vowed teams will work tirelessly until aid reaches everybody and people have regained normalcy, and called for national unity.

Authorities have restored electricity to more than 90% of homes, and brought back almost half of telephone lines that had gone down, he added.

The government also authorised 100 interim civil servants to help distribute financial aid.

Reuters Firefighters pump out the floodwater out of a tunnel in Valencia. Cars block up the entrance of the tunnel. Reuters
Firefighters pump floodwater out of a tunnel in Valencia

Local authorities are facing criticism over the speed of the response and for a lack of warnings in advance of the flooding.

Amparo Andres, who has owned her shop in Valencia for 40 years, told the BBC that at one point the water in the building reached her neck and she believed she was going to die.

"At least I'm alive, but I've lost everything. My business, my home," she said.

"And the government isn't doing anything. Only the young people around are helping us."

After returning to his home, local resident Juan Pérez said: "All my life, my memories.

"My parents lived there. And now overnight, it's all gone."

The civil protection agency, overseen by the regional government, issued an emergency alert to the phones of people in and around the city of Valencia after 20:00 local time (19:00 GMT) on Tuesday, by which time the flood water was swiftly rising in many areas and in some cases already wreaking havoc.

Juan González, who lives in the town of Aldaia, said the area was prone to flash flooding.

“It's outrageous that our local government didn't do anything about it, knowing that this was coming," he said.

In the devastated town of Paiporta, where more than 60 deaths have so far been reported, residents have expressed their frustration that aid is coming in too slowly.

"There aren't enough firefighters, the shovels haven't arrived," Paco Clemente, a 33-year-old pharmacist, told the AFP news agency as he helped clear mud from a friend's house.

Trapped in cars and garages: Why Valencia floods proved so deadly
British man, 71, dies after being rescued from Spain floods
More than 200 killed in Valencia floods as torrential rain hits another Spain region

The federal government in Madrid is also facing criticism for not mobilising the army sooner than it did and for declining an offer from the French government to send 200 firefighters to help with search and rescue efforts.

Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has vowed to do whatever it takes to help those affected by the disaster.

Volunteer clean-up efforts in Valencia - organised largely by young people on social media - saw columns of hundreds of people march to the areas most affected by the flooding.

On Friday, the local authorities said traffic would be limited in the Valencia metropolitan area between 00:00 local time on Saturday and 23:59 on Sunday.

Local head of infrastructure Martínez Mus said the move had been taken to ensure emergency services could use the roads freely and to guarantee the supply of water, energy, communications, and food distribution.

Reuters Columns of volunteers are seen marching to help with clean-up efforts after flooding in Valencia. Reuters
Columns of volunteers are seen marching to help with clean-up efforts

In response to looting, Sánchez said he would double the number of civil guard and national police on the streets, after more than 80 people were arrested.

One Aldaia resident told AFP he saw thieves grabbing items from an abandoned supermarket as "people are a bit desperate".

Areas across the south - including Huelva and Cartaya - have also been hit by heavy rains, while hundreds of families in the city of Jerez have had to be evacuated from their homes.

One of the reasons the flooding has been so severe is a lack of rainfall during the rest of the year, which left the ground in many areas in the east and south unable to absorb rainwater efficiently.

The region of Chiva near Valencia saw as much rainfall in one eight-hour period on Tuesday as it would normally see in an entire year, according to state meteorological agency Aemet.

The warming climate is also likely to have contributed to the severity of the floods.

In a preliminary report, World Weather Attribution (WWA), a group of international scientists who investigate global warming’s role in extreme weather, estimated that the rainfall was 12% heavier than it would otherwise have been, and that such weather even itself was twice as likely.

Additional reporting by Mallory Moench

Lũ lụt ở Tây Ban Nha: Quân đội được huy động thêm để tham gia cứu hộ, cứu trợ

Theo thống kê mới nhất, những trận lũ lụt dữ dội chưa từng thấy ở Tây Ban Nha trong tuần này đã khiến hơn 200 người chết, một con số sẽ còn tăng thêm do còn nhiều người mất tích. Trong khi đó, quân đội Tây Ban Nha được huy động ngày càng nhiều để tham gia cứu hộ cũng như cứu trợ, đặc biệt là tại vùng Valencia, nơi bị nặng nhất.

Đăng ngày: 02/11/2024 - 11:03
Sửa đổi ngày: 02/11/2024 - 11:42

2 phút

Bùn nước vẫn ngập nhiều đường phố ở Valencia, Tây Ban Nha, ngày 02/11/2024. Pauline Gleize / RFI
Thanh Phương

Theo hãng tin AFP, hiện đã có đến 2.200 binh lính được triển khai ở vùng này. Hôm qua, bộ trưởng Quốc Phòng Margarita Robles tuyên bố, nếu cần, chính phủ sẵn sàng gởi đến 120.000 quân đến vùng Valencia và số quân này sẽ ở lại đây cho đến khi nào vẫn còn cần. Nhiệm vụ ưu tiên của quân đội là khai thông các con đường để vận chuyển hàng cứu trợ và giúp tìm kiếm những người còn mất tích.

Rất đông người dân vùng Valencia cũng tình nguyện tham gia cứu trợ cho nạn nhân lũ lụt, như tường trình của thông tín viên Pauline Gleize từ Valencia:

« Carmen mở nắp xe đẩy và để lộ những hộp đậu, nấm, nước trái cây... Chúng nhanh chóng được chuyển cho hai tình nguyện viên trẻ. Nhiệm vụ của họ là sắp xếp, như lời của một trong hai tình nguyện viên: “ Chẳng hạn như chúng tôi sắp riêng sữa, nước, đồ hộp… Chúng tôi sắp theo hàng để tránh mất trộm. Ban đầu mọi người đến và để bất cứ thứ gì họ muốn. Nhưng bây giờ thì có tổ chức hơn nhiều, vì đã xảy ra trộm cắp.”

Dĩ nhiên là họ còn phải dành thời gian để giúp đỡ nạn nhân thiên tai, như lời một phụ nữ: “Tôi rất yêu thành phố của mình. Đang bị thảm họa như vậy, ai cũng đang trong cảnh khốn cùng mà lại nhận được ít trợ giúp như thế. Điều đó khiến tôi đau lòng.”


Tình liên đới của các tình nguyện viên trẻ khiến ông Jaime Serra rất ngạc nhiên. Chủ tịch Ngân hàng Thực phẩm Valencia cũng hoan nghênh hàng tấn hàng cứu trợ được gởi đến. Ông cho biết: “Họ đi trên xe của lực lượng Bảo vệ Dân sự, cảnh sát, cứu hỏa. Mỗi ngày có từ 15 đến 20 xe tải rời khỏi đây. Những gì không được vận chuyển sẽ được lưu trữ trong kho của ngân hàng thực phẩm. Tôi nghĩ rằng với những gì chúng tôi có và những gì đang diễn ra, chúng tôi sẽ có thể đáp ứng nhu cầu của các gia đình này trong tháng 11 và tháng 12 ». Valencia dự kiến trong những tuần tới ​​sẽ nhận được hơn 1.000 kiện hàng từ khắp Tây Ban Nha ».

Trận lụt lịch sử ở Tây Ban Nha : Người dân phẫn nộ, chỉ trích chính phủ chậm trễ

Thống kê thiệt hại nhân mạng sau trận lũ lụt tàn phá các vùng đông nam Tây Ban Nha cho đến tối qua, 31/10/2024, đã lên tới 158 người chết. Con số này còn có thể cao do các cuộc tìm kiếm hàng chục người mất tích vẫn tiếp tục. Ngoài ra, những tổn thất kinh tế cũng rất lớn, chưa thể tính hết được lúc này

Đăng ngày: 01/11/2024 - 13:34 - RFI
Sửa đổi ngày: 01/11/2024 - 13:40

2 phút

Các đội cứu hộ vẫn nỗ lực làm việc sau cơn bão. Ảnh chụp ngày 29/10/2024 tại Letur, Albacete, Castilla-La Mancha, Tây Ban Nha. Europa Press via Getty Images - Europa Press News
Anh Vũ


Chưa hết bàng hoàng vì trận lụt có sức tàn phá mạnh nhất từ nửa thế kỷ qua, người dân các vùng bị thiên tai phẫn nộ vì sự chậm trễ của các lực lượng cứu hộ. Trong khi đó, các đảng đối lập bắt đầu chỉ trích gay gắt chính phủ trong việc dự báo và xử lý thiên tai.

Thông tín viên François Musseau tường trình:

Mỗi khi các lãnh đạo và đảng phái chính trị chia rẽ, nhà vua can thiệp. Vua Philippe VI đã nhanh chóng kêu gọi tất cả người dân Tây Ban Nha và các lãnh đạo chính trị đoàn kết trước « thảm họa lịch sử này ».

Tất cả đều hiểu ý nhà vua muốn nói. Lãnh đạo chính phủ thuộc đảng Xã Hội, Pedro Sanchez và lãnh đạo đảng đối lập, Alberto Nunez Feijoo đã đối đầu nhau. Lãnh đạo đối lập nhiều lần chỉ trích thủ tướng không cung cấp thông tin cho ông.

Căng thẳng chính trị cũng xảy ra giữa bộ Nội Vụ và chủ tịch vùng Valencia liên quan đến các cảnh báo gửi đến điện thoại di động của người dân Valencia để thông báo cho họ về những cơn mưa xối xả sắp xảy ra và sự cần thiết phải tự bảo vệ mình.

Những cảnh báo đó đã đến muộn 10 giờ và sự thiếu phối hợp này có thể là nguyên nhân khiến nhiều người chết. Chính quyền vùng nói rằng đó là trách nhiệm của bộ Nội Vụ, còn bộ Nội Vụ lại khẳng định hoàn toàn ngược lại. Nhà chức trách đang bàn về việc thành lập một mặt trận chung trước thảm họa thiên nhiên tồi tệ nhất ở Tây Ban Nha trong nửa thế kỷ qua. Nhiều cây viết xã luận nói rằng hành động vẫn phải cần đi đôi với lời nói.