Families of victims demand criminal investigation into deadly floods in Spain

By Alyssa McMurtry

OVIEDO, Spain (AA) — Families of the victims of the deadly floods that devastated Valencia submitted a petition to the Spanish Parliament on Thursday, demanding a criminal investigation into the authorities’ response.

“They killed my father in the storm on October 29—a catastrophe that left Valencian citizens completely unprotected,” reads the petition on Change.org, started by Meri Garcia. “They did not send out an alert. They did not rescue us.”

Garcia’s father was among at least 223 people killed in the floods that struck Valencia. Eight others died in other parts of Spain.

On Thursday, Garcia was joined in Madrid by two other women who also lost family members in the disaster—their brother, sister, and four-year-old nephew.

The women carried the petition in boxes still caked with the mud that continues to haunt the hardest-hit areas as the massive cleanup drags on.

Nearly a month and a half after the floods, a corpse was discovered on Thursday buried under layers of mud in downtown Paiporta, likely one of the four people still missing.

The victims’ families are demanding answers as to why authorities failed to issue timely warnings about the flooding.

While torrential rain poured inland, dry ravines turned into massive rivers, sweeping water into streets with devastating speed as it rushed toward the sea.

Yet, the regional government of Valencia only issued an alert to residents’ phones after the worst flooding had already occurred.

Several parliamentary groups have expressed support for opening an investigation into the failures.

The petition’s signatories have also condemned the slow rescue efforts in the aftermath of the storm and lamented the ongoing impact, such as children still unable to return to school.

“I cannot stand to watch while the politicians responsible for my father’s death remain in charge as if nothing happened,” Garcia said. “As if there weren’t hundreds of broken families, businesses, homes, and lives destroyed.”

This week, the association SOS Desaparecidos announced plans to file a criminal complaint against city halls, the regional government, and the national government over their management of the floods.

Around 30 families have joined the case, which will allege crimes such as failure to provide assistance and manslaughter through negligence, according to local daily Levante.