The day after the deadly floods, he finds her Valencia in a state of shock. Firefighters, police, rescue crews and around 1,000 soldiers are working to locate survivors and an unknown number of missing. According to official figures, at least 95 people have lost their lives so far, most of them in the greater Valencia region. The government of Spain declared three days of mourning in the country.

In Spain’s third most populous city, approximately one hundred Greeks live, estimates Theodora Ioannidis, a student of Dentistry at the University of Valencia. He lives in the city center and says students were told on Tuesday not to go to their school because of the extreme weather: “Almost immediately followed by the equivalent of 112. The truth is I never expected to get 112 in Valencia as far as I know from Greece from the fires. I realized that the situation was going to get worse because at that time it was just raining. During the day the phenomena became much stronger.”

“People were panicking”

The Greek student estimates that the 112 warning came late: “It came during the day, while if the authorities had sent it the night before, some people who had already left for work might have stayed at home.”

Many residents of Valencia rushed to supermarkets to stock up on essentials, especially water, in order to avoid drinking from the tap. Theodora Ioannidis talks about empty shelves: “I saw many carrying sixes of water and five liters. And there I thought the world was in a panic. We saw the shelves being emptied while there was no supply issue at the time. People just panicked.”

Collecting food with the help of volunteers

In the region of Valencia, approximately 155,000 households are currently without electricity. Theodora Ioannidis tells DW that in the center of the city crews are trying to restore as much material damage as they can, in addition to locating missing people: “An effort is being made to remove tons of mud, but also a number of vehicles that were swept away by the waters in many parts of the city. At the same time, the city authorities, with the help of volunteers, collect food and basic necessities.

The deadly downpour and flooding in Valencia has several characteristics in common with the extreme weather events in the summer of 2021 in western Germany, which hit the Ar river area, about 35 kilometers south of Bonn in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. That night more than 180 people lost their lives and 9,000 buildings were destroyed. As now in Valencia, so also then in the Ar Valley the competent authorities are accused of not warning the population in time.