A tide of horror

Residents of Utiel in the Valencia region describe how they escaped rising waters, and the devastation left behind by unprecedented rain

- Sam Jones

Miguel Aleixandre, a supermarket worker and competitive powerlifter who lives in the small Valencian town of Utiel, was mid-workout last Tuesday morning at his local gym when the staff suddenly announced they were closing up because of the torrential rains that had been pummelling the streets since dawn.

The sheer volume of those rains that brought Spain's deadliest floods in modern history and claimed at least 214 lives across eastern, central and southern Spain - was becoming increasingly apparent.

The waters of the Magro, a river that is normally little more than a stream as it trickles through Utiel, began to rise and rise. Almost an hour earlier, Spain's state meteorological office, Aemet, had updated its severe weather warning, raising the alert level across the province of Valencia to red. "Be very careful!" it warned. "The danger is extreme."

By the time Aleixandre hitched a lift home to the house he shares with his mother and father close to the banks of the Magro, the water on the streets was 30cm deep. Over the next few hours, it would reach 10 times that height and kill six people in the town.

"I only just managed to get into the house because of the water," he said. "We went up to the top of the house and stayed there."

Fran Platero, who runs a heavy machinery business, was trapped in his home with his wife and two terrified young children for five hours until salvation appeared around 8pm in the form of a neighbour and his tractor.

"We climbed into the scoop and he took us to safety up at the hotel, which is the highest part of town," said Platero. "There was an alert, but we never thought it would rain like it did here. Never. We've had floods before but nothing like this."

The 38-year-old businessman repaid the favour by working through the night, using one of his own diggers to help rescue people from their homes. But not everyone could be reached in time.