Europe | After the waters fell

Spain’s flood poses far-reaching political questions

Over 200 died. Who is being blamed?

Debris is piled up along a street follopwing the devestating floods in the town of Paiporta, Spain
The work beginsPhotograph: Getty Images
|VALENCIA

The Rambla deL Poyo is once again the innocuous little stream it normally is. Yet in a matter of hours on October 29th it and two other nearby rivers turned into raging torrents, wiping out several small towns just south of Valencia, Spain’s third city. Muddy water came to chest level. Many of the 219 people so far known to have died, with at least another 89 still missing, were trapped in ground floors or basements, or trying to take their cars out of underground car parks.

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This article appeared in the Europe section of the print edition under the headline “After the flood”

From the November 9th 2024 edition

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