If you hate protesters blocking roads in the name of taking immediate #ClimateAction, you’re going to really hate how Climate Change itself blocks roads.

Kat O’Brien

@chris it is devastating to see this, especially having lived 1 1/2 years in Valencia.
It was nearby small towns that were hit hardest, from what I understand.

Rico

@chris I live about a mile down from the Encino reservoir in LA’s San Fernando Valley. When I say “down”, I mean down the hill. I hope this never happens here. It must’ve taken a massive downhill overflow of water to drag all those cars that way.

Chris Alemany🇺🇦🇨🇦🇪🇸

@obrien_kat sounds like it. I would like to live in Valencia one day, so this hurts.

John Burns

@chris

For those in U.S.

That's very close to 20 inches of rain.

Chris Alemany🇺🇦🇨🇦🇪🇸

@rick1960 sounds like there were fires about 10 years ago in the foothills to the East where the rains were strongest yesterday. It may have contributed to the incredible speed of the flood.

Dave Tapley

@JohnJBurnsIII @chris I wonder if there is anything like NOAA Atlas 14 for the EU / Spain?

I'm starting to think recurrence interval would be a good way to express, uh, 'unprecedentedness', without having to convert metric/US systems...

Nilsk

@chris
Please, provide sources. We want to be able to trust the photos.

dani

@chris Hi Chris! Just a small correction, the name of the town is Sedavi. Great thread!

Chris Alemany🇺🇦🇨🇦🇪🇸

@dave @JohnJBurnsIII I am sure there is but I'm not familiar with how to get to the information.

Chris Alemany🇺🇦🇨🇦🇪🇸

@ilsk see my replies in the thread, all the news articles with the original photos are there.

Chris Alemany🇺🇦🇨🇦🇪🇸

@danigjz ah! Thank you. Sorry about the typo.

Carolyn

@chris Those picturesque European cities with narrow, paved roads, are particularly great at funnelling water through instead of away from things. Pretty scary.

ArchaeoIain

@chris @Jade @danneau
Bear in mind that that dry course of the River Turia was artificially created to prevent massive floods burying the city. It was being built when I was working there in the early 1970s.

Chris Alemany🇺🇦🇨🇦🇪🇸

@CStamp the irony is there is an 4 lane highway on either side the river that flooded. Narrow and wide, the river takes all!

Chris Alemany🇺🇦🇨🇦🇪🇸

@ArchaeoIain I learned this today! Thank you! There are a few places in the world that have tried to do this (Winnipeg, Canada is another). It generally just moves the problem elsewhere. I don't know if it is fair at all to say this outcome is better than what might have been if the river had not been rerouted. We'll never really know.

Chris Alemany🇺🇦🇨🇦🇪🇸

“With every fraction of a degree of fossil fuel warming, the atmosphere can hold more moisture, leading to heavier bursts of rainfall,” said Dr Friederike Otto, from Imperial College London, who leads an international group of scientists who try to understand the role that warming plays in these type of events.
“No doubt about it, these explosive downpours were intensified by climate change.”
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c99ry7x925eo

Chris Alemany🇺🇦🇨🇦🇪🇸

Hey @GottaLaff! You know how Project 2025 proposes to get rid of things like the NOAA and FEMA? Well the left-wing government in the Valencia region got replaced last year with a right wing government and lo-and-behold:

"Valencia’s regional government has also been forced to defend its decision to scrap the Valencia Emergency Unit, which had been set up by the previous government to tackle natural disasters such as flooding and wildfires.”

Spain flood death toll expected to rise as dozens missing

Spain is enduring its worst flooding disaster in decades, with at least 95 people dead and dozens more missing.

(www.bbc.com)

thepoliticalcat

@chris @GottaLaff THIS is what happens when you vote climate-change deniers into office. You can't outbuild or outrun the coming disasters, people. FIX IT NOW or prepare to die. There's no middle ground here.

SomeGadgetGuy

@chris @GottaLaff
I scrolled by that photo and my first take was it was AI... Jeebus...

sleepy62

@chris @GottaLaff

Are any estimates yet of the cost to rebuild? Looks like 100s of millions if not billions.

#climateadaptation