Flood survivor found alive after three harrowing days in car
Spanish rescuers reached a woman on Saturday who had been trapped in her car since Wednesday in one of the tunnels in the province of Valencia. She is one of over a thousand people considered missing after the violent floods that struck eastern and southern Spain.
According to civil defence services, the woman became trapped in her car in the municipality of Benetússer due to the sudden disaster. She sat in the car for three days next to her deceased sister-in-law. Local officials reported that after being freed, the victim was immediately taken to the nearest hospital.
Rescuers found the woman when they heard her desperate cry for help among a pile of abandoned vehicles. She was trapped in one of the tunnels. The flash flood likely surprised drivers as they travelled through this area.
After three days, we found a living person in the car - Spanish media quote Martín Pérez, president of the Regional Civil Defence, who shared the joyous news with volunteers.
Tragic number of flood victims in Spain
After nearly four days of intense rainfall and flooding, authorities have confirmed the death of 213 people. The exact number of missing persons remains unknown, although some Spanish media report that more than a thousand people are being searched for. From Wednesday to Saturday evening, the police received over 2,500 missing person reports.
Volunteers continue to pour into the hardest-hit province of Valencia, eager to help mitigate the disaster's effects and search for the missing. Currently, over 100,000 volunteers are active in the region.
Saturday, however, brought another tragic event. Medical services reported that in the town of Chiva near Valencia, a group of 20 volunteers suffered carbon dioxide poisoning. Volunteers were cleaning one of the flooded garages when a pump used during the work malfunctioned.
The tragedy in Spain is considered the largest flood in Europe since 1967 when at least 500 people died in Portugal.
