Quotes
Our priority is to find the victims and the missing so we can help end the suffering of their families,
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said after meeting with officials and emergency services in Valencia on Thursday, the first of three official days of mourning
I saw bodies floating past. I called out, but nothing,
Sánchez saidGenerally speaking, the jet stream, because of the changes we are seeing due to climate change, is having more pronounced undulations,
Maria Jose Sanz, scientific director of the BC3 Basque Center for Climate Change, told the Associated Press
All of Spain weeps with all of you...We won't abandon you,
said SánchezThe same extremely wavy jet stream that is causing the U.S. drought is also responsible for the horrific flooding in eastern Spain,
climate scientist Jennifer Francis at the Woodwell Climate Research Center in Cape Cod told the APThe situation is catastrophic … We don’t have electricity in some areas; we’re without water and communication is difficult,
she told broadcaster Onda Cero
The car started to move, even with the brakes on,
said ReyWe’re told that that’s where a lot of people were caught,
said AlbalatWe’ve felt very isolated because there’s no government presence or anything like that,
said KlarenburgThe currents began to drag the car down,
he told El PaísI look out the window and the first thing I see is, literally, cars floating down the street of where I live,
he saidAll the basements were filled with water. A lot of people got nervous, they went to take the car out and they were trapped there,
he said, fearing more bodies would be found
When we started receiving notifications the water was up to here,
he said pointing to his beltI came on the metro, but the metro doesn't exist anymore,
the tearful 53-year-old cleaning employee saidEverything happened in half an hour,
remembered pensioner Julian Loras, 60, who narrowly avoided the floods while walking his dogToday I learned of two more deaths,
he saidIn general terms, what we know is that, in the context of climate change, these types of intense and exceptional, rare rainfall events are going to become more frequent and more intense and, therefore, destructive.
Dr Ernesto Rodríguez Camino, Senior State Meteorologist and member of Spanish Meteorological Association, said
No doubt about it, these explosive downpours were intensified by climate change
Dr Friederike Otto, Lead of World Weather Attribution at the Centre for Environmental Policy, Imperial College London, saidThe flash floods in Spain are another terrible reminder of the changing and more chaotic weather we are experiencing as a result of climate change.
Dr Jess Neumann, Associate Professor of Hydrology at the University of Reading, addedRight now the most important thing is to safeguard as many lives as possible,
he told reporters