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At least 95 people have died in Spain after flash floods turned streets into rivers that swept cars away. The death toll is still climbing, and rain is still falling in vast areas of the country. NPR's Miguel Macias reports from Seville.
MIGUEL MACIAS, BYLINE: DANA is a word that many people in Spain had not heard before, until today.
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PRIME MINISTER PEDRO SANCHEZ: (Speaking Spanish).
MACIAS: Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez addressed the nation on Wednesday and declared three days of mourning. He said this was the worst DANA the country had seen this century. The term DANA is a Spanish acronym for high-level isolated depression. That's when cold air descends over the warm waters of the Mediterranean Sea, leading to the formation of dense, towering clouds in a matter of hours. The storm left images of destruction, especially in the region of Valencia in the east.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (Speaking Spanish).
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: (Screaming).
MACIAS: In the town of Picanya, neighbors watched how an entire bridge was swept away by an overflowing river.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: (Speaking Spanish).
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #4: (Speaking Spanish).
MACIAS: Here, a concrete wall is taken down by a river that has taken over the streets. The rain was expected, with the national agency for meteorology alerting almost a week ago that torrential rain was on the way. But there was no indication that things would get so deadly.
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KING FELIPE VI: (Speaking Spanish).
MACIAS: Wearing a military uniform, the King of Spain, Felipe VI, lamented the deaths and the destruction caused by the storm. Over 1,000 soldiers from Spain's emergency response units were deployed to the devastated areas. Police and rescue services used helicopters to lift people from their homes and river boats to reach drivers trapped on the roofs of their cars. The devastating rainfall also stopped some rail and road travel in the worst natural disaster to hit Spain in decades. Scientists say increased episodes of extreme weather are likely linked to climate change.
Miguel Macias, NPR News, Seville, Spain. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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