Valencia floods demise toll hits 158 as new aerial photos present devastating scale of apocalyptic destruction
Aerials photographs have revealed the apocalyptic scale of destruction caused by the Valencia floods – as the disaster’s death toll hit 158 this afternoon.
The images taken on Thursday show wrecked cars abandoned on highways stained with brown mud and other bits of debris.
‘Unfortunately, there are dead people inside some vehicles,’ Spain‘s transport minister Oscar Puente warned today.
Parts of the Valencia region in eastern Spain were deluged by more than a year’s worth of rain in just eight hours on Tuesday causing monstrous flash floods.
The torrents of water destroyed whole villages and an unknown number of people are still missing with the death toll only expected to rise.
Aerials photographs have revealed the apocalyptic scale of destruction caused by the Valencia floods
Aerial picture shows mud-stained roads near Valencia covered in wrecked cars and other debris
A boat is stranded in a field following flash floods in the Valencia region
Aerial photo shows destroyed Albufera rice fields in an area affected by the heavy rains
A 71-year-old British man who was suffering from hypothermia was identified as one of the dead on Wednesday afternoon.
Walls of rushing water turned narrow streets into death traps and spawned rivers that ripped into the ground floors of homes and swept away everything in its path.
The aftermath, which has seen streets piled high with vehicles and water streaming down usually busy roads, looks eerily similar to the damage left by a strong hurricane or tsunami.
Wrecked vehicles, tree branches, downed power lines and household items all covered in a layer of mud covered the streets of Utiel, just one of dozens of towns in the hard-hit region.
Police revealed today that looters have taken advantage of the catastrophic floods, robbing abandoned stores of high-value goods including computers, mobile phones and perfume.
Thirty nine suspects have been arrested in the Valencia region so far as the Civil Guard continues to crack down on people hoping to gain from the chaos.
Meanwhile desperate families have resorted to taking food and water from supermarkets, with heart-wrenching pictures showing children picking through the aisles of wrecked food stores.
Aerial view shows abandoned cars on roads in the Valencia region on October 31
People stand next to stranded cars, following floods in Valencia, Spain, October 31, 2024
Picture shows an area affected by heavy rains that caused flooding near Valencia
A woman looks at a mud-covered road and damaged houses in the flood-hit municipality of Chiva, near Valencia, Spain, 31 October 2024
The army has been brought in to manage the search and rescue operation with 1,000 members of the Spanish Armed Forces mobilised yesterday.
One terrifying clip shows an entire bridge in Valencia being washed away in the floods.
Paiporta bridge in the town of the same name was left completely devastated as the river beneath burst its banks and continued to rise.
Horrified onlookers watched in horror as the concrete structure crumbled into the deluge.
The scenes in Paiporta – where at least one baby was counted among the dead – are among many to have been captured by locals.
Rainfall in the town of Chiva in Valencia reached a staggering 491 litres per square metre on Tuesday, according to Spain’s meteorological agency.
The town, just 20 miles west of Valencia, endured this amount of rain in just eight hours – the typical amount of rain seen in a full year and an ‘extraordinary accumulation’, the agency added.
Another clip revealed the moment a helpless woman was swept away by unstoppable flood waters.
The unidentified victim could be heard screaming as the deluge pushed her down a waterlogged street.
Cars are abandoned on a mud-stained highway near Valencia
Debris is strewn across a train track following flooding in the Valencia region
Aerial photo shows an area affected by heavy rains that caused flooding near Valencia
Many people in the city have even been forced to climb trees, scale lampposts and sprint desperately to the upper floors of buildings to escape
Horrified onlookers stood on balconies above stretched out their arms in a futile attempt to come to her rescue in the chilling clip.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez is heading to the region to witness the destruction firsthand as the nation starts a three-day period of official mourning.
Valencia today remained partly isolated with several roads cut off and train lines interrupted, including the high-speed service to Madrid, which officials say won’t be repaired for several days.
It comes as yesterday, a British woman described how she miraculously escaped the deadly Valencia floods by climbing out of her car window before it was swept away.
Karen Loftus, 62, from Dorset, said she and her husband are lucky to be alive after they made the potentially life-saving decision to abandon their car.
The couple were travelling south on the AP-7 motorway to their home in Alicante on Tuesday evening when they were hit by a deluge of rain.
Mrs Loftus, who is the chief executive of UK-based charity Community Action Network, said the next thing they saw was a bridge in front of them being swept away.
She told Sky News that within ten minutes of being stationary, ‘the water had risen up and started to come into the car’.
The pressure meant they were unable to open the vehicle’s doors so they decided to escape through the windows.
These images from the US Landsat-8 satellite vividly illustrate the scale of the disaster, with images from 8 October and 30 October showing the dramatic transformation of the landscape
Pedestrians stand next to piled up cars following deadly floods in Sedavi, south of Valencia, eastern Spain, on October 30, 2024
Vehicles are seen piled up after being swept away by floods in Valencia, Spain, Thursday, October 31, 2024
BEFORE: Satellite image shows Valencia on October 13, before the deluge of rain
AFTER: Satellite image shows severe flooding in Valencia on October 30 after heavy rains
Workers try to restore power to the residents of the flood-hit city of Torrent, province of Valencia, Spain, 31 October 2024
People stand next to stranded cars, following floods in Valencia, Spain, October 31, 2024
‘Just after we got out of the car, another car floated on top of our car,’ Mrs Loftus said, adding that the water levels had already reached their chests.
The couple managed to seek refuge inside a lorry but ‘lost everything’ in the disaster including their car and some belongings dating back 20 years.
