After returning to his home, local resident Juan Pérez said: “All my life, my memories.
“My parents lived there. And now overnight, it’s all gone.”
The civil protection agency, overseen by the regional government, issued an emergency alert to the phones of people in and around the city of Valencia after 20:00 local time (19:00 GMT) on Tuesday, by which time the flood water was swiftly rising in many areas and in some cases already wreaking havoc.
Juan González, who lives in the town of Aldaia, said the area was prone to flash flooding.
“It’s outrageous that our local government didn’t do anything about it, knowing that this was coming,” he said.
In the devastated town of Paiporta, where more than 60 deaths have so far been reported, residents have expressed their frustration that aid is coming in too slowly.
“There aren’t enough firefighters, the shovels haven’t arrived,” Paco Clemente, a 33-year-old pharmacist, told the AFP news agency as he helped clear mud from a friend’s house.
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