BARCELONA, Spain — A Spanish research vessel dedicated to exploring marine environments has been repurposed to assist in the urgent search for those missing following devastating floods in Spain.
The vessel, known as the Ramón Margalef, with its crew of 24, was expected to engage in mapping underwater areas covering 36 square kilometers—an area exceeding the size of 5,000 soccer fields. The aim is to locate vehicles washed away by last week’s catastrophic flooding that swept into the Mediterranean Sea.
Authorities are hopeful that identifying sunken vehicles will lead to the recovery of victims. Nearly one hundred individuals have been reported missing, and with over 200 fatalities confirmed, officials suspect that the true number of the vanished may be even higher.
Pablo Carrera, the marine biologist spearheading this mission, projects that within ten days, his team will provide valuable insights to police and emergency responders. He emphasized that without this mapping, executing a coordinated recovery operation to retrieve vehicles submerged under the sea would be nearly unmanageable.
“It would be akin to searching for a needle in a haystack,” Carrera remarked in a phone interview.
Many cars turned into deadly traps as the floods swelled up like tsunamis on October 29. The Ramón Margalef will participate in an extensive operation involving police and military personnel, who have broadened their search efforts beyond the severely affected towns and urban areas. Search crews utilize poles to sift through layers of mud while canine units attempt to detect scents belonging to those buried along canal banks and within fields. Coastal searches are also underway.
The initial focus for the Ramón Margalef is the stretch of sea adjacent to the Albufera wetlands, where floodwaters converged after demolishing nearby villages and encroaching on Valencia’s southern edge.
Spanish state media reported that a woman’s body has been recovered from a beach after she disappeared amidst the flooding that hit her hometown of Pedralba, located about an hour’s drive from the shore.
Carrera, who is 60 years old and the head of the research vessel fleet at the Spanish Institute of Oceanography—part of the Spanish National Research Council—embarked from Alicante. The ship is set to navigate toward Valencia’s waters, where it will commence operations around dawn on Saturday. The team, consisting of ten scientists and technicians along with 14 sailors, is prepared to work around the clock in shifts. This vessel has also previously studied the ramifications of volcanic activity following the 2021 eruption in La Palma, Canary Islands.
According to Carrera, the chances of locating a body in the ocean are extremely slim. Consequently, the primary mission revolves around identifying sizeable objects that have become submerged.
Equipped with cameras, the vessel’s submersible robot is capable of diving to depths of 60 meters to seek out vehicles. The team aims to identify license plates; however, visibility may be severely restricted, and the cars could be significantly damaged or buried deep in the sediment, Carrera explained.
In addition to their immediate objective, the team will also analyze how flood runoff affects the marine ecosystem, contributing to broader initiatives launched by other Spanish institutions focused on studying the nation’s most severe flood disasters in recent history.
Historically, Spain has experienced sporadic deadly floods due to autumn storms. However, experts cite the current two-year drought and unprecedented heatwaves as exacerbating factors that intensified these recent deluges. The Spanish meteorological agency reported an unprecedented rainfall of 30.4 inches within just one hour in the Valencian town of Turis, marking a new national record.
“We have never witnessed an autumn storm of this magnitude,” Carrera highlighted. “While we cannot halt climate change, we must adapt to its consequences.”