When the primary autumn rains fell this yr, Toni García drew the curtains. Rain is a painful reminder of final yr’s devastating floods that killed greater than 200 folks in Spain, together with her husband and solely daughter.
“All the things comes again to me. From being with my household to being alone,” García mentioned by way of tears at her house in Benetusser, on the southern outskirts of the Mediterranean port metropolis of Valencia.
“On October twenty ninth, 2024, many households, together with mine, perished.”
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It didn’t rain in Benetusser that gray Tuesday, however a “tsunami of reeds and water” triggered by torrential downpours kilometres away surged into her road.
Garcia watched from the balcony because the flood approached.
Her husband, Miguel, 63, and daughter, Sara, 24, a nurse, had gone to the basement storage to maneuver their automobiles in case the rain predicted by the media arrived.
Each had been among the many 237 folks killed, largely within the province of Valencia, in Spain’s worst pure catastrophe in a era.
“They had been my complete life. I’ll combat for them as a result of they died unjustly,” Garcia mentioned, criticising the regional authorities for failing to alert residents in time.
‘So folks bear in mind’
The floods hit 78 municipalities, sweeping away 130,000 automobiles and damaging hundreds of houses, and producing 800,000 tonnes of particles, primarily round Valencia, Spain’s third-largest metropolis.
“We had been left with solely what we had been sporting,” recalled Pedro Allegue, an 81-year-old retiree in Paiporta, one of many hardest-hit cities, the place 45 folks died.
Staff knock down a college one yr after harmful floods in Alfafar, outskirts of Valencia, on October 3, 2025. (Photograph by Thomas COEX / AFP)
His voice echoed by way of the empty rooms of the ground-floor house he and his spouse had escaped through a courtyard stairwell. A part of the home stays in ruins.
The thick mud that coated the city has given solution to the roar of equipment as houses are rebuilt.
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The floods affected greater than 8,000 companies, a few of that are nonetheless struggling to reopen, in response to the Valencian enterprise confederation Confecomerc.
“I misplaced six months of my life, however I’ve reopened,” mentioned David Parra, 51, at his trophy store in Paiporta, which he escaped on the day of the floods by breaking by way of the lavatory ceiling.
He has positioned the books and shovels utilized by volunteers and members of the family to take away mud in his storefront show.
“It is so folks bear in mind,” he mentioned, holding a small tile studying: “The flood reached this level. Solely the folks save the folks.”
‘Onerous to maneuver on’
Hundreds of volunteers helped residents within the days after the floods, when locals felt deserted by the authorities. Tensions erupted into protests throughout a go to by the Spanish royal household to Paiporta.
About three kilometres (two miles) away in Alfafar, noisy machines now tear down the stays of the Orba college.
The floods disrupted lessons for greater than 48,000 pupils and broken 115 faculties. Eight faculties, together with Orba, have to be rebuilt, and college students started the brand new yr in prefabricated school rooms.
“Many kids freeze or turn out to be anxious on the first signal of rain,” mentioned Ana Torres, 47, as she escorted her two kids to momentary school rooms.
She returned to her water-damaged house a month in the past however mentioned a lot stays to be rebuilt.
“Not with the ability to dwell life as earlier than makes it exhausting to maneuver on,” she mentioned.
Rosa Álvarez, President of the ‘Affiliation of Deadly Victims DANA October 29’ poses with an image of her father, who drowned inside his house in Catarroja. (Photograph by Thomas COEX / AFP)
Protests
In Catarroja, the place 25 folks died, a wall bears the message: “20:11. Neither neglect nor forgive”, marking the time flood warnings reached residents’ cell phones. By then, it was too late.
“Once I managed to talk to my father at 7:50 pm, he was drowning,” mentioned Rosa Álvarez, 51, on the home in Catarroja the place her 80-year-old father died after floodwaters knocked down considered one of its partitions.
Álvarez, who heads an affiliation representing victims of the floods, is preventing in court docket for accountability over what they contemplate negligence by the authorities. She mentioned she feels her father was “killed” by their inaction.
Campaigners have taken to the streets each month, demanding the resignation of the top of the regional authorities Carlos Mazón over his dealing with of the catastrophe, with the following demonstration scheduled for Saturday.
Regional authorities insist they didn’t have the data wanted to warn folks sooner.
“This is not only a private wound, it is a wound all of us share,” mentioned Álvarez. “We have now to verify one thing like this by no means occurs once more.”
