MADRID – A British businessman who lives in Spain has said he managed to escape the worst of the devastating floods even as his neighbours lost everything.
At least 158 people including a British man have been killed in the floods across south-eastern Spain, with many still missing. One Spanish resident of the worst-affected region of Valencia told i he was still looking for his missing father.
Like so many other Spaniards, Samuel Hernaiz, 26, from Valencia’s barrio de la Torre, said he was hoping for news of his father, José Hernaiz, 61, who left his lorry on a bridge in one of the badly affected areas of Valencia.
“The police found my father’s lorry but he was not inside it. It was on a bridge but he was not there. Right now it is very difficult. I hope other people have good news if they are missing family members,” he said.
John Crisp, 62, originally from Burnham-on-Crouch, Essex, who lives in Pedralba, a municipality in Valencia, lost towels and rugs, and tonnes of gravel were washed away from his home when about 40cm (15 in) of water fell in about four hours. He avoided having his home totally destroyed by pure luck.
He said his neighbours’ homes, on the other hand, had been inundated, and they lost all their possessions in the flooding, known as a gota fria (cold drop).
“We all knew this was going to be very bad. We got about 40cm of rain in four hours. No number of warnings can test what that is going to be. It is hard to predict. It is the third time we have had a gota fria in the past seven years but nothing like this,” Mr Crisp told i.
“There a lot of people who have a metre or two of water in their homes and everything is destroyed. But we have no power so it is hard to find out what is going on.”
With power lines down, Mr Crisp, who moved to Spain 17 years ago, said he was struggling to run his UK-based promotional merchandising company with his wife, Nicky.
“When the UK has one of these flash floods they will find out that if you lose power for 48 hours you are effectively cut off from the whole world.”
He said his son Rory, 28, had recently bought a flat in Alfafar in south-western Valencia, one of the worst-affected areas. “He does not know if it is standing or not,” he said.
“My son is totally shell-shocked. He said the flooding was insane. The depth of mud off the scale. Road after road after road blocked with cars all smashed to pieces.”
Mr Crisp said the Valencian conservative regional government had recently disbanded the emergency response unit, which has unleashed a wave of criticism since the flooding.
Spanish rescue services scrambled on Thursday to try to find dozens of missing people but there were fears the death toll would rise even further. Spanish state television showed video of helicopter crews rescuing a one -year-old baby from the floods.
Spain’s AEMET state weather agency issued its highest level of alert for Castellón, north of Valencia, and in Catalonia in the north-east an amber alert was issued for Tarragona.
Cars piled on one another like toys, smashed bridges and household items mired in mud were the aftermath of the floods in Valencia and Málaga.
A 71-year-old British expat died in hospital from hypothermia after suffering a heart attack during a rescue on a dinghy near his home near Málaga.
Thirty-nine people have been arrested for looting shops in flooded areas, Spanish police said.
Graham Hunt, a British estate agent based in La Pobla de Vallbona in the north-west of Valencia city, said he had a lucky escape because most of the heaviest rain was concentrated in the south and west of the region.
“Our local thing is that a bridge at Ribarroja has gone and that it is 5km away,” he said.
Worried relatives in Britain and other European countries were calling Spanish authorities for news of loved ones. Many of the worst-hit areas are popular with British retirees.
As Spain began three days of official mourning for the dead, King Felip VI paid tribute to the heroism of rescuers.
