At least four people have died after heavy rain and severe flooding across eastern Spain , forcing hundreds of people to flee. The worst-affected areas are in the Valencia and Alicante regions, on Spain's eastern Mediterranean coast. In the town of Oliva, two bodies were recovered on Monday. One victim was a 79-year-old woman found at her home, while another was a man who died from a heart attack at a campsite. In Sagunto, a man drowned while swimming at the beach, while in Catalonia, a woman died after falling into a rain-swollen stream in Catalonia.
Emergency services have rescued more than 450 people who were stranded by the rising water. Some had to be airlifted from rooftops, flooded buildings and vehicles, while others were brought to safety by boat. Roads were underwater on Monday Image: Rober Solsona/EUROPA PRESS/dpa/picture alliance Residents use buckets to drain water from their homes in Daimuz Image: Ana Beltran/REUTERS Pile of furniture on a muddy street Image: Rober Solsona/EUROPA PRESS/dpa/picture alliance Emergency restrictions Authorities imposed emergency restrictions across several municipalities, asking people to stay indoors.
Most restrictions have since been lifted. The Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean, including Mallorca and Ibiza, were also affected, with schools closed, and some flights cancelled or delayed. Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said military emergency teams were assisting with the rescue efforts and pledged full government support. The latest flooding comes almost two years after the Valencia region suffered a devastating flood disaster that killed more than 220 people.
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Deutsche Welle reports four deaths, hundreds of rescues and emergency restrictions from severe flooding in eastern Spain. It never tells its reader that warming makes such heavy rainfall more intense, though other outlets covering the same floods carried that line.
Leaves out the climate link
Serious
“heavy rain and severe flooding across eastern Spain”
Why this matters
Deutsche Welle presents the "heavy rain and severe flooding" as a weather event and nothing more. No sentence in the article mentions climate change, warming or the heat of the Mediterranean.
The impression it gives
A reader comes away thinking these floods are a natural misfortune unconnected to a warming climate.
The context
Human-caused warming has made heavy rainfall more frequent and more intense. France 24, reporting the same floods, said scientists link climate change to stronger autumn Mediterranean storms through a hotter sea and heavier rainfall. The article also leaves out that Spain had just had its hottest September on record.
How we know
Checked against the whole articleIt never uses the words “climate”, “warming” and “heat”.
On the recordThat warming has made hot extremes, heavy rainfall, agricultural and ecological drought, fire weather and intense tropical cyclones more frequent or more severe.ipcc.ch (opens in a new tab)
At least four people have died after heavy rain and severe flooding across eastern Spain. Scientists say human-driven climate change is intensifying the autumn Mediterranean storms that hit the region, as a warmer sea feeds heavier rainfall.