Angry Spaniards still demand answers a year after Valencia’s deadly floods

BBC:

The last time Toñi García saw her husband, Miguel, and 24-year-old daughter, Sara – their only child – was when flash floods struck their hometown of Benetússer a year ago.

Miguel and Sara went down to the garage in the basement of their home to move their car. But floodwater poured in and they were unable to escape.

“The military scuba divers who found the bodies of my husband and daughter said that they had managed to get out of the car and they were together, holding each other,” says Toñi, in tears.

That was on 29 October 2024, a date now etched into the psyche of the people of Benetússer and many other towns in the Valencia region, in eastern Spain.

The worst floods Spain had seen for decades – a phenomenon known by meteorologists as the Dana – killed 229 people in the region, with another eight dying in neighbouring Castilla-La Mancha and Andalusia.

“They didn’t reach the garage door, because it was so much water, so many metres deep. Water and mud,” Toñi remembers.

“I know that they had time to know that they would die,” she adds. “It’s what hurts me the most – the tragic way in which they died.”

A year on, Valencia still grieves.

A state memorial service will be held on Wednesday in the City of Arts and Sciences complex, with King Felipe VI and Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez among those expected to attend.

Even for many of those who did not suffer personal loss, the legacy of the tragedy lingers.

Jennifer Arango Bonilla and her family watched the floodwaters from the safety of their first-floor flat nearby in Benetússer, but for her nine-year-old son Emmanuel the trauma is hard to leave behind.

“Whenever it rains he is very scared and thinks it’s all going to happen again,” says Jennifer, adding that the event has affected his behaviour. “Before, he was boy who talked more, played more and interacted more with other children. Now he’s quieter.”