Spanish towns devastated by deadly floods: 95 dead, rescue ops continue

On Wednesday, Spanish authorities reported that at least 95 people died as a result of the violent flood, and rescue services are trying to locate dozens of missing persons.

The Valencia region was the most affected by the disaster, with 92 fatalities, as informed by Angel Victor Torres, Spain's Minister of Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory. However, significant damage was also recorded in Castilla-La Mancha and Andalusia. In these locations, a total of 3 people died.

The Spanish police released footage of the evacuation operations. Residents of the Malaga region were evacuated by helicopters. From the helicopters, services searched flooded towns using night vision cameras. In the video, a group of people is seen escaping to the roof of a container, where they lit a fire. As soon as they saw the helicopter, they began waving at it. Further in the footage, rescuers are seen transporting people by raft.

Additional footage was recorded in the regions of Torrent and Valencia. These clips show the catastrophic effects of the flood. Debris brought by the water is visible on one of the bridges. A fire broke out in one of the buildings. Further scenes show flooded roads with abandoned cars in the middle.

Most of the highways became completely impassable on Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning. Vehicles abandoned in traffic jams were lifted and moved by the water.

The violent storms and floods that hit eastern Spain result from an atmospheric phenomenon known as DANA (Spanish: depresión aislada en niveles altos, or isolated depression at high levels) or "cold drop." It occurs when cold air masses meet warm and humid air over the Mediterranean Sea, leading to atmospheric instability.

DANA is precisely a mass of cold air that has been cut off and isolated from the original stream. It descends to lower levels, resulting in extreme weather conditions like storms, tornadoes, or floods.