Spain has been hit by a new flooding disaster as a torrential deluge has sent cars floating through the streets of Girona.
Footage shows a furious torrent of water sweeping away everything in its path, including several vehicles, as it devastated the center of the Catalan city of Cadaqués this morning.
Today residents woke up to a new scene of destruction, with Mayor Pia Serinyana revealing that a total of 32 cars had been swept away by floodwaters caused by the overflowing of a nearby river.
Many ended up piled up next to a bridge in front of the city’s casino, and at least one of the wrecked vehicles appeared to belong to foreign tourists due to clearly visible license plates.
This comes just over a week after another flood hit Spain, particularly the Valencia region, and more than 200 people were confirmed dead.
Footage shows strong currents sweeping away cars as floods swept through the streets of Cadaqués, Girona, this morning.
Cars, some of them with foreign plates, have been seen this morning piled up in Cadaqués
In another video you can see several cars piled up on a bridge in another Spanish town, the last one devastated by floods.
Miraculously, there were no reports of human casualties in the former fishing village of Cadaqués on Friday.
Catalan meteorological agency Meteocat, which published images of the latest flash flood to hit Spain early this morning, said: “This is how the Cadaqués stream descends after the intense and continuous rain this morning, where it is likely There has been more than 100 mm of rain.
A local resident said in X: ‘The situation is very serious in Cadaqués. Dozens of cars have been swept away by the swollen river in the city, blocking the bridge.
“It had been many years since something like this had happened in Cadaqués.”
The town’s mayor, Serinyana, confirmed early this morning that no one had been injured or killed and only property damage had been caused.
He said the number of cars swept downstream had reached 32 after the council warned residents not to park in the area, adding: “We received an alert from the Catalan Operations Coordination Centre, but people were parking their cars. cars (anyway) and the water swept them away.”
Serinyana added: ‘A lot of water has fallen on the mountain and, although it hardly rained in the town, the water has washed away some parked cars.’
The heaviest rainfall occurred between 2 and 3 in the morning. While rain warnings remain in place for northeastern Catalonia, the local meteorological service predicted that rain will decrease over the weekend.
One local admitted: “If this raging torrent of water had passed through the city during the day, I am sure we would have been witnessing a large number of casualties.” The time of night this happened saved us from a certain tragedy.’
Cadaqués is just over 500 kilometers north of Valencia, where more than 200 people, including two Britons, lost their lives in flash floods at the end of October.
Meanwhile, Paiporta in Valencia has been labeled by Spanish media as ground zero for the natural disaster that has also left 78 people missing, while authorities say the real figure could be higher.
Today residents woke up to a new scene of destruction: Mayor Pia Serinyana revealed that a total of 32 cars had been swept away by the flood waters.
Images show the furious floods that destroyed cars in the town of Cadaqués in Girona
More than 60 people died in Paiporta when a wave of water slid down the Poyo canal that runs through its center.
Frustration over survivors’ sense of abandonment exploded in Paiporta on Sunday when a crowd greeted Spain’s royalty and officials with a volley of mud and other objects.
The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, was urgently transferred and the royal couple finally had to cancel the visit after speaking with several distressed neighbors in the midst of a chaotic scene.
The mayor of Paiporta, a middle-class community of 30,000, called on Tuesday for a “higher authority” to intervene and take control of her municipality because flooding had made it impossible to continue.
Mayor Maribel Albalat said that all municipal buildings, from the town hall to the local police, had been severely damaged and that many of the local officials “are in a state of shock.”
“Paiporta is a strong town, but this goes beyond our capabilities as a local administration,” he stated.
The ‘thup, thup, thup’ of the huge twin-prop Chinook helicopters that flew over the area with the army’s arrival has added to the post-apocalyptic atmosphere.
The destruction, however, went far beyond Paiporta and encompasses a wide swath of municipalities, especially on the southern flank of the city of Valencia, on the Mediterranean coast. In seventy-eight locations, at least one person died due to the floods.
Damaged cars and debris on the side of a road, following heavy rain that caused flooding, in Paiporta, near Valencia, Spain, on November 6, 2024.
Valencia firefighters search for victims at a lock in L’Albufera, near Valencia, eastern Spain, on November 7, 2024.
Volunteers and locals help clean mud from the street after heavy rain in Paiporta, near Valencia, Spain, on November 5, 2024.
Members of the Bilbao city police department help a woman carry a dog through a muddy street in the flood-affected city of Paiporta, Valencia, Spain, on November 7, 2024.
A man walks over rubble to access a mud-covered street in the flood-affected city of Paiporta, Valencia, Spain, on November 7, 2024.
Police have expanded their search to nearby marshes and coastline, where some were swept away by the waters.
Residents, businesses and councils in affected towns can apply for financial help from a €10.6 billion aid package from the Spanish government.
The regional government of Valencia, criticized for not alerting the population of the danger in time, has asked the central government of Madrid for 31 billion euros to guarantee recovery.
More than a week later, the cleanup continues to remove tons of mud and debris that clog street after street, filling thousands of ground floors and destroying living rooms and kitchens.
The neighborhoods were left without shops or supermarkets after all their products were ruined. Many houses still do not have drinking water.
An improvised army of volunteers were the first to help on the ground, shoveling and sweeping the sticky brown mud that covered everything, and helping to begin removing pile after pile of rubble that made access to cars impossible in many areas.
Authorities eventually mobilized 15,000 soldiers and police reinforcements to help firefighters search for bodies and begin removing thousands of wrecked cars strewn across the streets and sunken in canal beds.
At every corner, cars pile up on top of each other or crash into buildings, light poles, trees and bridges.
