A Spanish Tragedy: Rising Waters and Death Tolls
October 29th
The great flood struck fast as a bolt from Zeus.
A years worth of rain came down in a week, bursting through the river banks. The water ravaged villages as old as the Inquisition. Cars got piled stories high as the great surges snaked through the streets. Plazas that just days prior abuelitas strolled down on their way to the pastelería were now filled with wreckage.
Spain, the land sunshine and sangria—so often the driest country in Europe—was drowning.
But it wasn’t all of the Iberian Peninsula that felt this wrath.
Valencia bore the brunt of it. A place known for paella, but this seafood dish just scratches the surface of this community (Spain’s version of a state). It’s history goes further than the country of Spain: Buildings go back to the times of Roman rule and the Caliphate of Córdoba.
But the destruction of buildings means nothing, for they can be resurrected. It’s the lives taken by the floods that cannot be restored.
Imagine the terror of drowning in your own house. Picture yourself in bed, sound asleep, when out of nowhere water explodes into your room.
Many dream of drowning, few have to actually experience that nightmare. The heart constricts when thinking of those old folks who lying in bed as the water went from ankle deep to past their ceiling in minutes. Families, unlucky enough to live in the basement of their apartment complex, had nowhere to go except each other, praying for a last minute miracle to extract them from Mother Nature’s fury.
The corpses piled up so fast emergency workers used a courthouse as a makeshift morgue.
Days after the flood scores of people are confirmed dead. Many more are missing. Their family and friends still hold on to hope. Maybe, just maybe, beneath the muck and misery, there are survivors. Getting to them requires hundreds of hours of hard work and thousands of people aiding the effort.
The government response was slow. Days went by with no official help. A Spanish lady, knee deep in mud, perfectly described what happens next: The people will save the people.
November, 2nd
Alcala de Henares, Madrid, Bilbao, Barcenla, Santiago de Composto
King Felipe VI
November 4th
Two hundred years ago, nobody on The Continent could picture the scenes in Paiporta on November, 4th. The actions undertaken by the masses was something that would mean immediate execution for the people who did it.
Spain’s king and queen, King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia, and Prime Minster Pedro Sánchez were greeted by furious citizens looking to rightfully vent their pent up fury.
“Murderers!” they cried, wielding shovels they were using in the recovery efforts.
Somebody threw mud, striking the king in the face. The queen fared no better. Her thousand yard stare showed a woman trying to disassociate from the hostility surrounding her. Imagine: A monarch receiving a furious fistful of bacteria-filled mud to his face.
The Prime Minister fared no better. He too was welcomed with fistfuls of mud. The back window of his car was shattered. He was apparently struck (sources never mentioned where he was hit and by what). Officials cited far-right agitators as the primary reason the Socialist leader left his suffering people so suddenly.
The strangest part of this scene was that the monarchs stayed to face the wrath while the elected leaders left.
Pedro Sánchez, Prime Minister of Spain
The King and Queen have no reason to be liked by the masses. There rule is set in stone until Felipe VI dies (or anti-monarch sentiment reaches a boiling point). They don’t have to worry about an election on the horizon.
Pedro Sánchez, though, has a thread-bare hold on power after coming second place in the 2023 general elections, only gaining the necessary seats by cutting an amnesty deal with a Catalan separatist party.
It isn’t correct the anger manifesting as physical attacks as ideologically driven.
If this was only a right-wing attempt to takedown Spain’s socialist prime minister, then the King and Queen would not have been assaulted as well. If lefties were trying to tear down the monarchy, then Pedro Sánchez would have been spared.
No, people were pissed at anyone who represented the state. In the eyes of everyone, the state let them down. Spaniards from the Canaries to Catalonia are asking, Why did nobody warn them?
November 15th
7,500 troops deployed days after the floods, billions of euros promised for those affected, and thousands of volunteers from across the Iberian peninsula flock to Valencia to help—recovery efforts are underway.
The problem is the lives lost. 220 are dead. The number keeps rising. Recent data shows almost half were over 70. The numbers of children drowned is too sad to perish. The frustrating thing that people in the heart of the storm are asking is, “Why weren’t we warned?”
The regional leader Carlos Mazón gave the most non-accountable
Start with talking about what’s been done, then go to no prior warning
The people will save the people.
Answers haven’t been given. Doing so would require someone to be accountable—politicians can’t stand doing that.