Saturday, November 2

The death toll in this week's devastating floods in eastern Spain has risen again, and the true effects of the disaster are just beginning to surface.

In case you missed it, the rain arrived on Tuesday, wreaking havoc upon eastern Spain. The storm killed at least 202 people in the region of Valencia alone, which is located on the country's heavily-populated eastern coast that was the hardest-hit area in Spain. Two people were also killed in the region of Castilla-la Mancha and another in the southern region of Andalusia.

The extremely heavy rains washed away cars, roads, trees, bridges, and buildings in a matter of minutes, surprising locals. Streets and buildings were flooded just minutes after the downpours began, turning small ditches into muddy lakes and small rivers into raging cascades of water. In total, over a foot of rain fell across eastern Spain, and over a year's worth of rain fell over some parts; the town of Chiva, west of the city of Valencia, received a staggering 19 inches. However, the town of Paiporta, located south of Valencia, has been designated as the "epicenter" and "ground zero" of the floods, primarily due to the fact that there is a ravine running straight through the center of the city. At least 62 people died in Paiporta alone after a massive, 6-foot tall wave of mud roared into the streets, wiping out everyone and everything on the roads. Locals described the surges of mud as "tsunamis" due to their dangerous, destructive nature.

Much of the coastline in the Valencia region is low-lying, leading to increased flooding, and there are several rivers that run through the area. Meanwhile, on Thursday and Friday, the storm shifted south. Several towns in Andalusia, located on the southern tip of Spain, received serious rainfall. One town in particular, the port city of Huelva, is located on the low-lying delta of two rivers, making it exceptionally susceptible to flooding, and they will continue to receive rain through the weekend. While Valencia will get some time to recover, Andalusia will face more rain for the next few days before they can begin their search-and-rescue efforts, leading experts to believe that death tolls will continue to rise.

Along with low-lying cities, several mountainous towns have been isolated by the rains, as roads coming in have been heavily flooded and citizens within them are without power or cellular signal. Around 150,000 people are out of power across Spain, unable to reach emergency services or contact family members, and roads have been closed, trains have been canceled, and schools have been shut down. Sadly, by the time alerts came out to stay out of the way of the floods, many people were already submerged under the water in their cars or homes, and others became trapped in low-lying areas. Dozens of people have also been caught looting homes and stores whose owners had evacuated or were stuck elsewhere during the storm, leading to numerous arrests by the country's National Guard.

Alarming before-and-after satellite images showed farms submerged in mud, streets covered in water, greenery washed away, and broken bridges, and one zoomed-out image truly showed the amount of destruction done by the rains. The latter showed a before image of a large area of farmland beside a large marshy lake known as L'Albufera, with the after image displaying the same area but covered in water.

Many locals are criticizing Spain's relatively slow response to the situation-- the country's civil protection agency did not even acknowledge the issue until over two hours after Chiva had flooded. In addition, Valencia's regional government did not send out alerts to locals until hours after Spain's national weather agency announced the arrival of serious flooding, leading to more criticism from citizens of eastern Spain.

However, search-and-rescue teams and utility companies are working as hard as possible to save as many people as they can. Hundreds of volunteers are rushing to help the cause, and emergency services are heading around Valencia to find any struggling survivors. So far, officials have stated that the armed forces have rescued at least 4,600 people, and power has returned in almost 90% of the region.

This is one of the worst rainfall events to ever hit Spain, and many older residents describe it as even worse than . Unfortunately, some officials estimate that the storm's death toll could continue rising, as hundreds, possibly even thousands, of people are still missing. Extreme rainfall events like this will only increase as climate change worsens, as a warming world leads to stronger, more frequent, more powerful storms that carry more precipitation. However, climate change can only be stopped by emitting less greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, which means burning less fossil fuels.

Fact of the Day (Reader's Digest): All 1.2 million letters of the Old Testament of the Bible have been nano-printed onto the surface of the Nano Bible, a five-by-five millimeter aluminum disk. But since each impossibly tiny letter measures 600 nanometers, you would need an electron microscope to read it. You can also purchase a Nano Bible with the New Testament inscribed in it.

Quote of the Day (Gracious Quotes): Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not. (Epicurus)

Word of the Day (Merriam-Webster): Hatching (noun)- Hatching refers to the drawing or engraving of lines close together as a method of shading, or to a pattern so created.

In a Sentence: The artist uses hatching to breathe life into her comics.