Quotes
We found a lot of elderly people inside their homes and people who went to get their cars. It was a trap,
There's a total of 158 people to which must be added dozens and dozens of missing,
Angel Victor Torres, minister in charge of cooperation with Spain's regions, told a press conference Those people wouldn't have died if they had been warned in time,
Laura Villaescusa, a neighbour and manager of a local supermarket, told Reuters Right now the most important thing is to safeguard as many lives as possible,
Unfortunately there are dead bodies in some vehicles,
We will help you with all the state's resources."
Earlier in the day, Sanchez convened a government crisis committee and, in a speech, said This is an unprecedented situation, nobody has seen anything like this,
Valencia's regional President Carlos Mazon said They raised the alarm when the water was already here, there’s no need to tell me the flood is coming,
fumed Julian Ormeno, a 66-year-old pensioner in the Valencia city suburb of Sedavi People shouldn’t be dying from these kinds of forecasted weather events in countries where they have the resources to do better,
added Liz Stephens, a professor in climate risks and resilience at the University of Reading We take preparation for other hazards such as earthquakes and tsunami very seriously,
added Jess Neumann, associate professor of hydrology, at the University of Reading We urgently need to adapt our cities to be more resilient to floods,
she added, suggesting making space for water to flow through urban environments without causing damage Nobody came to take responsibility,
Our infrastructure is not designed to deal with these levels of flooding,
We felt powerless really that we could see that the river rose for half an hour
We must help our elders, we can't hang around doing nothing,
This was a bit tough because my daughter had a crisis moment
It's so sad because the impact could have been reduced if the local council had planned better, but they acted too late
The mother-of-two, who wished to remain anonymous, said The storm started as heavy rain first thing on Tuesday but took a massive turn around 4pm and got really intense
Speaking of the moment the disaster hit, she said Instability will continue in the Mediterranean area, with probable showers and storms that would affect the Balearic Islands, the Valencian Community and Catalonia during the weekend and that could be locally strong and persistent.”
For those who at this moment are still looking for their loved ones, the whole of Spain weeps with you."
Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez promised to rebuild infrastructure that had been destroyed and said in a televised address