I live in Valencia, Spain, where flooding has taken over 100 lives. I can hardly believe what’s happened here.

The streets were full of dirt, covered with mud and water. People to the south of the river had no power or signal. It was like going back to the Middle Ages.

We also helped a group of young people clear a sidewalk. We were up to our eyebrows in mud.

The police were there, but there were hardly any other emergency services in the area, as they were rescuing people who were at risk.

Friends have lost their cars. Some have garages full of water and mud that they are cleaning. I don’t know anyone close to me who died.

We returned home in a state of shock, taking it all in.

Left behind

I am frustrated and angry.

I have a background in marine environmental emergencies and forest fire management, and I now work for a company on a firebreak management and forest fire prevention project.

So, I’m not a firefighter or a member of the military, but I’ve worked on environmental emergencies from an intelligence-gathering point of view.

I know how to evacuate people, how to manage populations, and how to manage adverse situations. But that did not happen in Valencia.

Worse than Hurricane Milton

I remember watching the news of Hurricane Milton hitting Florida last month and how Floridians were preparing for it.

Residents boarded up their windows with large wooden panels; store owners were getting ready for it, and people evacuated.

The Tampa mayor even urged people to leave and said that anyone who stayed would die.

After Hurricane Milton, there were at least 16 deaths. Meanwhile, here in Valencia, it’s already about 10 times as many.

The Spanish Meteorological Agency had issued an alert days before the storm. But on Tuesday, nothing happened. There was absolute calm in the morning. People were going to work and to university. When the local alerts came, the storm was already happening.

A wake-up call

Undoubtedly, human errors were made. I’ve never seen anything like it.

In a country like Spain, with the means, agencies, and intelligence we have, it is horrible that this happened.

At a certain point, authorities were saying 50 dead, then 60, then 70, then 90. To me, that doesn’t sound like much. I believe that when the waters recede and the mud clears, more dead bodies will be found.