Spain hit by flash floods that killed 155 people and roiled an economic hub

  • Spain's eastern province of Valencia was hit by intense, historic rainfall.

  • At least 155 people were killed in flash floods in the region, local emergency services said.

  • The region is a big part of Spain's economy, with significant auto and manufacturing industries.

Historic, deadly flash floods in eastern Spain have roiled the region on since Tuesday.

The floods, brought about by torrential rains, killed at least 155 in the province of Valencia, regional emergency services said, citing a provisional death toll.

A yellow storm warning was still in place across Valencia's province as of Thursday, they said.

Though heavy rains are common in the region in fall — part of a phenomenon known as "cold drops" — this was extreme.

According to Spain's State Meteorological Agency, it was a historic storm in the province, the worst of the 21st century and more severe than anything since 1987.

It said that Tuesday was the worst day of the storm, but that bad weather would continue throughout the week.

Images and videos from the region showed brown water surging through fields, blocking roads, and hitting some built-up areas.

The roof of a car submerged in water following floods near Valencia.
Valencia's government has advised against road travel in the province.JOSE JORDAN/AFP via Getty Images

The flooding seemed not to strongly hit Valencia, the regional hub and Spain's third-largest city.

At Pastisseria Soler, a bakery shop located south of Valencia, the owner described the flood damage as "horrendous" in a phone call.

The person, who declined to share her identity, told Business Insider that a nearby river overflowed and reached their street in only ten minutes. Power cuts meant all their stock had to be thrown out, she said.

Insurers are still reckoning with what the cost of the disaster may be — one early estimate placed it easily in the billions of euros.

Per a Spanish government briefing, the most significant industry in Valencia is automaking. It also mentioned chemicals, manufacturing, agri-food, and IT.

It was not immediately clear whether particular industries or companies were severely affected by the floods.

Cristina del Rey, the communications director for Ford Spain, told BI that her company's Valencia plant had not suffered direct damage from the floods but would be shut down on Wednesday and Thursday.

At a press conference on Thursday, Spain's transport minister said it would take three weeks to restore the damaged railway line connecting Valencia to Madrid, the Spanish capital.

On Tuesday, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said he was closely following reports of missing people and damage caused by the storm and that all emergency services were being dispatched in response to the storm.

The provisional death toll of the floods put it among the most serious natural disasters in Western Europe in recent years, though not the worst.

Widespread flooding in July 2021 that struck Belgium, Germany, and surrounding countries killed more than 200 people. Overall, extreme weather in Europe has caused economic losses of assets estimated at more than $800 billion between 1980 and 2023, according to the European Environment Agency.

According to a report from the Aon Spain Foundation, a private nonprofit foundation that works to prevent and assist with natural disasters in Spain, the annual cost of natural disasters in Spain, including floods, was estimated to range from around $940 million to $2.5 billion from 2016 to 2021.

In an X post on Wednesday, the city of Valencia's mayor said the province was facing one of the "most difficult and painful" moments in its history.

In an address on Thursday, Sánchez said all the emergency services that have been dispatched are working around the clock to find missing people and victims' bodies and ensure all the residents can go back to their homes as soon as possible.

He urged all residents to stay home as the storm continues.

"Right now, the most important thing is to safeguard as many lives as possible and to guarantee as many lives as possible in this dramatic, tragic crisis that we are experiencing," he said.

The government has declared three days of national mourning, from Thursday until Saturday.

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