2024-11-16
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You are actually radioactive and everything alive is Unexpected elements from the BBC World Service.
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Hello, I'm Mark Lohan.
Welcome to the documentary from the BBC World Service.
In BBC OS conversations, we bring people together to share their experiences.
This.
This time it's conversations on the aftermath of the Valencia floods.
More than two weeks on and streets are still being cleared of mud and debris after the disaster that killed more than 220 people.
In our conversations, one family describes the search for their father.
And we meet three rescue volunteers angry that the authorities have not been doing enough.
We feel abandoned, we feel insecure.
We feel our heads can just not understand this, because if civilians are able to do it with their two pair of hands and with a broom, how come there is no organization at those levels?
The forecast on 29 October warned of rain along the Valencia region of Spain's Mediterranean coast.
But for many people, an official warning of severe weather came far too late.
By the time government leaders had issued an alert directly to people's phones, the flash floods were already causing enormous damage in one of the worst affected towns, towns by Porta, where at least 60 people died.
Waves of water swept cars and people along the streets, flooding buildings in minutes.
In the aftermath of the disaster, I was sent to cover the story for the BBC.
I've never seen that level of devastation from weather.
It was like a bomb had been dropped from the air, destroying everything in its wake.