It’s almost impossible to describe what we have experienced in the flooded villages and towns around the city of Valencia. Many of those villages and towns are in ruins, with at least 217 dead and others to be pulled out of the mud. There are many areas that still need urgent help. There are towns without water or electricity that have not been able to clean up. There are still flooded garages, buildings on the verge of collapse, and health problems that may result from the accumulated water.

But what also defies belief is the regional Valencian government’s sheer negligence in its pre- and post-disaster management. Let me try to summarise some of the most serious shortcomings.

The regional government received every possible warning about the floods from a huge range of sources. The scientific community has been warning for decades that the entire Mediterranean is becoming a breeding ground for increasingly powerful storms, which are covering an ever-widening spread of territory. The State Meteorological Agency (AEMET) warned five days before the floods that there would be a potentially unprecedented rainstorm, and 12 hours before the public warnings from our local government, it specified that the situation was at the highest level of risk.........

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