Valencians struggle to recover from devastating floods

Pascual Andreu proudly points to a black-and-white photograph taped to the wall of his chocolate-making business premises. It shows his grandfather, who started the company in 1914.

But, when he looks around him and remembers the devastation caused by flash floods in the eastern Spanish region of Valencia on October 29, Andreu’s eyes well up with tears.

“Water came in and water and mud covered everything,” he says. “And when it was gone, it left a terrible scene. All the stock we had was ruined, the machinery was useless. Went.”

He adds, “I’ve been working all my life. And for what?”

The flood waters have left a six-foot-high (1.8 m) scar on the wall, and although the water is now gone, mud still clings to the machines. Miraculously his grandfather’s picture did not get washed off.

But, now in his sixties, and still waiting to see how much insurance money he can get, Andreu is too discouraged to start over.

Flash flooding killed more than 220 people in the Valencia region, trapping many of them in their cars or on the ground floors of buildings as tsunami-like waters descended. But along with taking lives, the disaster also destroyed livelihoods. The Chamber of Commerce of Valencia estimates that 48,000 companies have been affected.

Towns and industrial areas around the Mediterranean city of Valencia, which themselves were spared the effects of the floods, were hardest hit. Overall, Valencia province represents 5% of Spain’s GDP, according to CaixaBank Research, which estimates that the disaster could reduce national economic output by one to two percentage points in the fourth quarter of 2024.

Industrial property has suffered the most damage. Diego Roma, executive president of the Federation of Industrial Estates in the Valencia Region (Fateval), says that “thousands of jobs are at risk” and that a total of 58 industrial estates were affected by flood waters.

“Most companies are working hard to resume production, but unfortunately there are 10 to 20% of companies that are going to close,” he said.

The legacy of 29 October is still visible on the industrial estate. Abandoned vehicles stand parked along the muddy road, debris is piled against walls and many businesses have their shutters down.

Electro Fernandez, an electrical installation company, is one of the few companies to reopen after losing €40,000 ($42,000; £33,000) worth of equipment in the floods.

“We were 100% affected immediately because we lost our equipment and vehicles,” said Patricia Munoz, who co-owns the company with her husband. She says they are operating at 10% of their capacity right now.

“We have cleared the site, all our staff are here and we have taken action to reopen,” she says. “But a lot of the companies on this industrial estate and others are nowhere near it, they are still cleaning up.

“It’s been an absolute disaster. You only realize the scale of it when you see it yourself.”

Not far away is a car storage area, where hundreds of the approximately 120,000 vehicles damaged or destroyed by the floods have been taken off the roads and stacked one on top of the other. As part of a €17 billion relief plan announced by the government in the first month after the tragedy, it promised to provide car owners with up to 10,000 euros to replace their vehicles.

Businesses and self-employed workers will also benefit with compensation for damage caused to homes and corporate premises. A leave scheme is also in place.

The socialist prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, told Congress in late November that his government was making “a huge effort” to ensure that the promised funds reach those in need as quickly as possible. However, not everyone is convinced.

“I think the official financial aid has been badly managed,” says Tony Milla, president of a local trade association in the town of Alfar, which was heavily affected. He says much of the relief that was promised to businesses during the Covid pandemic did not reach its destination.

He says, “I think the same thing is going to happen this time too.”

Valencians’ confidence in their authorities has already been deeply shaken by the immediate response to the disaster. Protesters are demanding the resignation of regional president Carlos Mazzone, who was revealed to have been absent from his office for several hours on the day the floods occurred because he was having lunch with a journalist. Many believe that the delay by his administration in issuing alerts on the phones of people in the area led to the loss of lives.

Mazzone has rejected such claims. “We did our best based on the information available,” he says.

Others criticize the central government for failing to deploy troops and other resources more forcefully. However, Sánchez has stressed that his administration “fulfilled its duties and has done so since the beginning of the crisis”.

Meanwhile, help has been provided by the private sector. Alsem-Se, a charity platform founded by local supermarket entrepreneur Juan Roig, says it has distributed €35m euros in non-refundable aid to 4,600 businesses.

However, for many, including Mr Milla, the relief may not be enough. He owned a local TV channel, an estate agency and a bar and has only managed to reopen – partially – the latter in the wake of the October floods.

He lists a number of nearby businesses – including a petrol station, a gym, a beautician and an optician – which he says will not reopen.

But it is not just urban areas that were affected on October 29. The Valencia region is part of an agricultural region in south-eastern Spain, which exports large quantities of fruit and vegetables to the rest of Europe.

Twenty-five miles (40 km) south of the city of Valencia, José España visits his orange groves. Below them, oranges washed away from the branches by floodwaters lie rotting on the ground.

“Farmers always say ‘things will get better next year’, but right now the mood among farmers is very pessimistic,” he said. The agricultural union of which he is a member, AVA-ASAJA, estimated that on 29 October damage to crops alone was worth more than €1 billion.

“Farmers now have a few years left in which to go, and the flooding may cause a few more farmers than usual to leave the industry,” he says. “It will take two or three years to get things back to where they were before the floods.”