Valencia still seeks answers over 234 flood deaths two years on

About 130,000 people marched through Valencia two years ago, demanding accountability for the delayed response to the flooding on 29 October 2024. The disaster could not have been stopped, said Victoria Roselló, chief meteorologist at regional broadcaster À Punt, but she argued that many deaths could have been prevented with a timely warning.

Scientists had seen the storm coming five days in advance, Roselló told EUobserver. She had discussed the approaching weather in television forecasts, but said authorities did not issue an official alert before people died. She called it “inexplicable” that, given the available data, officials did not warn residents, particularly those most at risk.

Spain has a phone alert system that can notify people in a defined area about dangers such as wildfires. Why it was not used to warn of the floods remains unexplained. “If only people had been warned that an avalanche — a tsunami of water — was coming their way,” Roselló said.

Criminal lawyer Joan Bertomeu, who is leading the investigation into regional authorities’ delayed response, said there was “plenty of scope to have acted differently.” The episode has added to a series of regional tragedies cited as damaging the credibility of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s government, including a high-speed train collision in Toledo on 28 October and an earlier incident in Córdoba in January.