CHIVA, Spain — Irene Cuevas is haunted by the sound of crashing waves from below her apartment balcony. As darkness enveloped her surroundings, she wished for a flash of lightning to see the chaotic scene created by surging waters. “The fear was unrelenting as we could hear the waves crashing, but couldn’t see anything,” Cuevas recounted. “We were enveloped in darkness, surrounded by sounds of raging currents and waves everywhere. The street was entirely flooded, and we hoped for just a glimpse of what was happening.”
The catastrophic flash floods that struck eastern Spain this week resulted in the loss of more than 200 lives, leaving countless homes and livelihoods devastated while deeply imprinting a sense of dread among many survivors.
Cuevas, a 48-year-old embryologist, resides in Chiva, a village located approximately 30 kilometers (18 miles) from Valencia. This area was one of those severely affected by the floods earlier this week. Within an astonishing eight hours, Chiva experienced more rainfall than it had in the previous 20 months. While at home, Cuevas witnessed the gorge separating her village overflow alarmingly with fast-moving water.
The torrent led to a tragic loss of at least seven lives in Chiva, a community of around 16,000 residents, with ongoing efforts to locate others who may have perished in collapsed structures or were swept away by the water.
Cuevas described the horrifying night as rain began to pour relentlessly, causing the gorge’s banks to burst while carrying away vehicles and debris. “It was terrifying. The bridges’ underpasses filled with debris, causing the water to flow through the village,” she said. “You could only imagine the destruction as the water surged.”
Normally dry, the gorge known as “Barranco de Chiva” became a raging waterway that contributed to the sweeping floods, further fueled by runoff from nearby channels feeding into vineyards below. The intense storm downed two of the four bridges crossing the gorge, with a third deemed unsafe. The gorge’s edges crumbled, causing nearby structures to buckle and numerous homes to suffer severe damage.
Having moved to Chiva to begin her new life after marriage 18 years ago, Cuevas lives just a street away from the gorge. Alongside her neighbors, she offered assistance to those fearful of their building collapsing directly across the street. Some residents described the sensation of their building trembling under the force of the water. Together, they worked diligently to secure ropes for cross-street safety as individuals waded through the torrents to reach higher ground.
As the chaos unfolded, about 20 people crammed into her second-floor apartment and the one above, spending a restless night amidst the storm’s fury.
Amparo Cerda, Cuevas’ neighbor from above, expressed the trauma of recalling the waves’ intensity and the deafening sound of “doors bursting” from the water’s might.
“We felt like our building had transformed into a vessel adrift in a tempest,” Cuevas recounted. “There were waves surging in both the gorge and the street, colliding and creating terrifying currents right at the corner where houses collapsed.”
Once daylight broke, the devastation was laid bare. “We stood in shock at the sight of so many homes lost, leaving us feeling helpless and unsure of where to even start looking for missing people,” Cuevas noted.
As five days have progressed since that harrowing night, residents of Chiva, along with those in nearby areas like Paiporta, Barrio de la Torre, and Massanassa, are uniting to clear away the remnants of debris and sludge left by the floods.
This weekend, an additional 5,000 soldiers will join the 2,500 already deployed, alongside thousands of police officers sent to assist. However, the local community remains at the forefront of recovery efforts.
“Right now, our priority is to clean up and prepare for what comes next, especially with more rain predicted for the weekend,” Cuevas warned. “We’re hoping to get everything ready because the rain will come again.”
