World News - Spain is hit with nearly a month’s rainfall -- in 1 hour!

Spain is hit with nearly a month’s rainfall -- in 1 hour!

On Tuesday October 29, 2024, parts of eastern and southern Spain got swept away. 

More than 200 people have died. The lives of thousands have changed.

 

This was due to flash floods caused by heavy downpours that concentrated in the river basins and canals of eastern and southern Spain. With the heavy downpours, riverbanks overflowed rapidly. 

“In the blink of an eye, the muddy water covered roads and railways and entered houses and businesses in towns and villages on the southern outskirts of Valencia.” (AP News). 

People were trapped in homes, businesses, and vehicles. “When the water started to rise, it came as a wave,” said Guillermo Serrano Pérez. “It was like a tsunami.” (BBC).

 

The aftermath of these floods is catastrophic. People were left with a massive destruction of their communities. Many homes and vehicles were damaged. 

“The ground floors of thousands of homes have been ruined. Inside some of the vehicles that the water washed away or trapped in underground garages, there were still bodies waiting to be identified.” (AP News).

 

This natural disaster has never happened before. Spain is accustomed to autumn storms that cause minor flooding, but nothing like this. 

“Climate scientists and meteorologists say the immediate cause of the flooding in Spain is a DANA, a cut-off lower pressure storm system that migrated from an unusually wavy and stalled jet stream.” (AP News). 

Other scientists believe this could be tied to the unusually high temperature of the Mediterranean Sea and the prolonged droughts in 2022 and 2023. And the most obvious reason climate change. 

LATEST NEWS!

Two weeks after Spain’s deadly flooding, severe thunderstorms and torrential rain hits the country again! 

Thousands of people have been evacuated from Valencia and Malaga, as well as nearby areas. The amount of rainfall inundating the areas has been record breaking! In about 1 hour, the southern Spanish province got about 4 inches of rain!

“In just one hour, nearly a month’s worth of rainfall inundated the city of Malaga, in Spain’s Andalusia region, according to the country’s meteorological agency AEMet.” (CNN World).

There have been reports of blocked roads, streets submerged in water, and flooded basements. 

“The Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility has also announced they have suspended the Málaga-Madrid rail service due to the accumulation of water on the tracks.” (CNN World).

More heavy rainfall is expected. 

It seems like they can't get passed one unfortunate event when another one hits. 

Let’s pray for Spain as they brace for more heavy rainfall.

Sources:
Chinchar, A., Danaher, C., Alberti, M., & Mosquera, P. (2024, November 14). Thousands evacuated as parts of Spain hit with nearly a month’s rainfall in one hour. CNN World. https://www.cnn.com/2024/11/13/europe/spain-rain-thousands-evacuated-malaga-intl-latam/index.html

Gozzi, L. (2024, October 30). 'Like a tsunami': Spaniards recount horror of deadly floods. BBC. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c8ekdp4r6kpo

Medrano, T. & Wilson, J. (2024, November 07). What to know about the unprecedented floods that killed more than 200 in Spain. Associated Press. AP News. https://apnews.com/article/flash-floods-spain-valencia-climate-change-what-to-know-f942142b82de24f5b4a18867bc32ae00