Rescuers delved into flooded garages on Monday to find victims of Spain’s deadliest floods in a generation, as fresh rainstorms caused transport chaos in Catalonia’s northeastern region.
The toll stands at 217 dead – almost all in the eastern region of Valencia – with the country fearing the discovery of more bodies as an unknown number of people remain missing.
National weather service AEMET announced the end of the emergency for Valencia, but heavy rain hit Catalonia, where residents received telephone warnings urging extreme caution.
Barcelona’s El Prat airport, Spain’s second busiest, said 50 flights were canceled or delayed and 17 diverted on Monday, while the city closed some flooded metro stations and suspended regional trains.
Images on social media showed cars plowing through flooded roads in the Barcelona suburbs of Castelldefels and Gava, and barefoot travelers wading through water that had seeped into El Prat.
Spain was also dealing with the aftermath of an extraordinary outburst of popular anger, with crowds arguing and throwing mud at King Felipe VI, Queen Letizia and Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez.
The Civil Guard has opened an investigation into the chaos in the ground zero town of Paiporta, which cut short their visit on Sunday, Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska told public broadcaster TVE.
He blamed “fringe groups” for instigating the violence, which saw mud splashed on the monarchs’ faces and clothes and a window shattered in Sánchez’s car.
– ‘We were abandoned’ –
The incident underlined growing anger over authorities’ preparation and response to the catastrophe.
Experts have questioned the warning systems that failed to warn the population in time and the speed of the response.
“They said ‘warning for water’, but they should have said it was a flood,” Teresa Gisbert, 62, told AFP in the devastated town of Sedavi, saying she had “lost everything”.
Thousands of soldiers, police, vigilantes and firefighters spent a sixth day distributing aid and clearing mud and debris to find bodies.
But relief did not reach some cities until days after the disaster, and in many cases volunteers were the first to provide food, water, sanitation and cleaning equipment.
“We should not romanticize it: the people saved the people because we were abandoned,” said Jorge, 25, a resident of the city of Chiva where the royal family canceled their visit on Sunday.
Divers concentrated their search for missing bodies on Monday in garages and a multi-storey car park in the town of Aldaia.
The storm affected many victims in their vehicles on roads and in underground spaces such as parking garages, tunnels and garages where rescue operations are particularly difficult.
Local authorities in Valencia extended travel restrictions for another two days, canceled classes and urged residents to work from home to facilitate the work of emergency services.
– ‘Consequences of inaction’ –
The unity that bound polarized Spanish politics when tragedy struck began to falter as attention turned to those responsible for handling the crisis.
The far-right party Vox denounced Spain’s “failed” state and accused Sánchez of slow deployment of troops and “demonization” of volunteers. The far-left Podemos demanded the resignation of Carlos Mazon, the conservative leader of the Valencia region.
Sánchez has said this is not the time to review disaster management amid urgent rescue and reconstruction efforts.
The main opposition Popular Party urged the left-wing government to go further by declaring a national emergency and approving aid packages for individual citizens.
Storms coming from the Mediterranean Sea are common this season. But scientists have warned that human-induced climate change is increasing the ferocity, duration and frequency of extreme weather events.
“Politicians have not taken action on climate change, and now we are paying the consequences of their inaction,” environmental activist Emi, 21, told AFP in Chiva.
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