DRAMATIC footage shows how flash floods in Valencia turned roads into rivers in just minutes.
Shocking footage shared on social media by residents of the Spanish city and surrounding areas comes as the death toll for the disaster hits 202.
TikTok/luuciaseguiiAt 7:17 pm on Tuesday, the roads were dry and most residents were unaware of the destruction that would hit them[/caption]
TikTok/luuciaseguiiAt 7:40 pm, residents had started to leave the city in their cars[/caption]
TikTok/luuciaseguiiBy 8 pm people had abandoned their vehicles as water continued to surge into the streets[/caption]
Two clips shared online show the speed at which the devastating flash floods took over the streets and gave inhabitants little to no time to flee.
TikTok user @luuciaseguii who lives in Benetusser shared the reality that hit unsuspecting inhabitants of the Valencian region on Tuesday night.
The 58-second clip shows a few drivers attempting to leave the city at 7:17 pm as news spread about the incoming floods.
Just two cars were in the street below the TikToker’s apartment and the surrounding streets were empty and dry.
By 7:33 pm, another shot looking the other way down the street shows bumper-to-bumper traffic as people tried to flee.
Just five minutes later, “water starts to come,” she wrote.
At 7:40 pm she showed that the water had flowed down the long street and was continuing at quite a pace while drivers were stuck in their cars still hoping to get out.
The water continued to come and by 8 pm the true images of destruction emerged with abandoned cars covered up to their bonnets in water as the torrent continued to flow down the street.
This was when Luu claimed she and other residents of Benetusser received an alert notice.
People stood on their balconies with torches while watching the carnage around them as cars swept down the street and piled on top of each other.
“We are still waiting for people to come help us,” the TikToker wrote in the caption to her post on Thursday.
Similar footage which was also filmed in Valencia, the worst-hit region of Spain, was shared on X by user @Rainmaker1973.
Gulliem Valenci who is credited with taking the footage, stood on a footpath while filming the flooded road in front of him.
Other onlookers were doing the same while some cars continued to drive around the other nearby streets which were still dry.
TikTok/luuciaseguiiThe road outside the building turned into a river in a matter of minutes[/caption]
ReutersA firefighter looks inside a car after heavy rains in Alfafar, in Valencia[/caption]
Meanwhile, a city vehicle with red markings on the side had its lights flashing while parked up on the dry part of the roads near the flooding.
However, in a matter of seconds, the flood waters went from only slightly ebbing further onto the road to pouring out in a major overspill.
The murky brown surge of water and debris continued to spread out into the roads, forcing all those filming to keep moving back as there was no break in the flow of water.
As the torrent continued to flow, vehicles suddenly changed direction and the driver of the city car managed to flee in the vehicle moments before more waves of water and debris hit the headlights.
Why was Spain hit by flooding?
Spain was hit by flash floods after the east of the country was hit by a meteorological phenomena known as a ‘DANA’.
A DANA, or a ‘cold drop’ is technically a system where there is an isolated depression in the atmosphere is at high levels.
In layman’s terms, more warm and moist Mediterranean air than usual was sucked high into the atmosphere after a cold system hit the country from the south.
The easterly wind then pushed all those clouds and rain into eastern Spain.
Three to four months of rain fell in some places over the space of 24 hours.
The DANA system hit southern Spain as it arrived from Morocco yesterday and is now expected to head west over southern Portugal.
The water continued to cascade forward around a roundabout until Gulliem Valenci realized he had to keep moving and cut the video.
“Within minutes it turns into a river,” one viewer wrote in the comments.
An off-duty police officer from Benetusser revealed how he saved the lives of two of his neighbours with a rope made of bedsheets when the flash floods hit the region.
As search and rescue crews continue to gain access to places previously cut off due to water and debris, the death toll is expected to rise.
A further 500 soldiers have joined the 1,200 soldiers from Spain’s Military Emergencies Unit in the search for missing people as the country braces for further devastation.
A new red alert weather warning with torrential rain was issued for the Balearics on Friday.
The Spanish province of Huelva received the deadly alert as residents have been chillingly warned to “brace for more fatalities.”
Valencia Regional Authorities confirmed on Friday morning that the death toll has surpassed 200 people in what is one of the worst natural disasters in the country’s living history.
XFootage on X showing a relatively minor amount of flooding[/caption]
XMurky water and debris cascaded into the previously dry roads with little warning[/caption]
XIn just seconds the situation changed and onlookers were forced to flee[/caption]