Flood survivors say regional Spanish officials waited too long to warn them of the danger
Moments after rushing waters burst through the door to her home, Mari Carmen Pérez received a text message alert from regional Spanish authorities warning her of the possibility of flash floods.
Moments after rushing waters burst through the door to her home, Mari Carmen Pérez received a text message alert from regional Spanish authorities warning her of the possibility of flash floods.
By the time Pérez’s phone buzzed, the water has already gushed into her kitchen, living room and bathroom, forcing her and her family to flee upstairs.
“They didn’t have any idea of what was going on,” Pérez, a 56-year-old cleaner, said Thursday by phone from Barrio de la Torre in Valencia. “Everything is ruined. The people here, we have never seen anything like this.”
She was one of the lucky ones. At least 158 people have now died, many trapped in cars or the ground floor of their homes, when storm-fed riverbeds burst their banks and swept through dozens of localities on the southern outskirts of Valencia city.
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