The News
More than 200 people were killed in floods in eastern Spain this week, many of them in the Valencia region where a year’s worth of rain fell in eight hours, leading to torrents of water that trapped people in homes and cars.
Opposition politicians accused the regional government of acting too slowly to warn residents, sending an emergency alert 10 hours after the National State Meteorological Agency warned of “extreme danger” in the region. “Those people wouldn’t have died if they had been warned in time,” Laura Villaescusa, a manager of a local supermarket, told Reuters.
European officials said the flooding, the worst in Spain’s history, was a warning of Europe’s unpreparedness for climate change. Greece, Belgium, and Germany have also seen devastating floods in recent years.
SIGNALS
Floods should be ‘final wake-up call’ for fast-heating Europe
Since the Industrial Revolution, Europe has warmed quicker than any other continent, at almost twice the global average, The Guardian reported. Rising temperatures bring more intense rainfall, leading to the “monster” flooding seen in Spain, and also across Germany last year. “This is the dramatic reality of climate change. And we must prepare to deal with it,” Politico reported European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen as saying. However, a report by the European Environment Agency in March states that Europe is not prepared for the growing climate dangers it faces. “The risks are simply outpacing the developments of policies,” an official at the European Environment Agency said, while another expert noted, “This should be the final wake-up call.”
Authorities blamed for prioritizing economy over safety
Valencian authorities have drawn widespread criticism over waiting hours to warn residents of the floods in an apparent attempt to maintain business as usual. Their reluctance may have stemmed from an emergency alert sent by the Madrid region’s president last year urging people to stay home over an expected flood that turned out to be a false alarm, Le Monde wrote, which drew ire over the economic cost. “The economy and the freedom of all must be reconciled with safety,” she said at the time. The eastern Spanish region’s government was slammed in particular for having dissolved the Valencian Emergency Unit, an elite rapid response unit meant to tackle natural disasters. “There are political responsibilities behind this tragedy,” one lawmaker told Politico. “The storm may have been inevitable, but there are people who have died because they were forced to go to work.”