I got swept away in the Spanish floods, it was like a disaster movie – but a split-second decision saved me, says British charity worker
A British woman miraculously escaped the deadly Valencia floods by climbing out of her car window before it was swept away.
Karen Loftus, 62, from Dorset, said she and her husband are lucky to be alive after they made the life-saving decision to abandon their car.
The couple were travelling south on the AP-7 motorway to their home in Alicante on Tuesday evening when they were hit by a deluge of rain.
Mrs Loftus, who is the chief executive of UK-based charity Community Action Network, said the next thing they saw was a bridge in front of them being swept away.
She told Sky News that with ten minutes of being stationary, ‘the water had risen up and started to come into the car’.
Karen Loftus (pictured), 62, from Dorset, said her and her husband are lucky to be alive after they made the potentially life-saving decision to abandon their car
Dozens of mangles cars are piled up in a street south of Valencia
A Civil Protection member carries a child in a street covered in mud in a flooded area in Picanya
A man walks through a debris-covered street after flash floods hit the region on October 30, 2024
Residents walk past piled up cars following deadly floods in Sedavi, south of Valencia
The pressure meant they were unable to open the vehicle’s doors so they decided to escape through the windows.
‘Just after we got out of the car, another car floated on top of our car,’ Mrs loftus said, adding that the water levels had already reached their chests.
The couple managed to seek refuge inside a lorry but ‘lost everything’ in the disaster including their car and some belongings dating back 20 years.
More than 90 people have so far been confirmed to have died in the floods with the death toll expected to rise.
Entire towns have been plunged under water, cars swept away and people stranded in their homes in near apocalyptic scenes.
A 71-year-old British man who was suffering from hypothermia was identified as one of the dead on Wednesday afternoon.
The government has declared three days of mourning with the floods described as Spain’s worst natural disaster in more than 50 years.
However, one British expat living in Valencia told MailOnline the impact of the deadly disaster could have been lessened if authorities acted earlier.
The mother-of-two, who wished to remain anonymous, said: ‘It’s so sad because the impact could have been reduced if the local council had planned better, but they acted too late.
‘They knew this weather was on the way but didn’t tell anyone to stay inside.’
Speaking of the moment the disaster hit, she said: ‘The storm started as heavy rain first thing on Tuesday but took a massive turn around 4pm and got really intense.
‘However, because the government hadn’t cancelled anything yet everyone was already out picking up kids from school, driving back from work or at the shops and then they were stuck.
‘The weather intensified throughout the day but a warning wasn’t sent until 8.11pm.
‘By that time many people were already out collecting kids from school or driving back from work, the alert would have been better earlier in the day.
‘Now they’ve told us to stay home today which they should have said yesterday – they’ve been too little too late on the warnings.’
Paiporta bridge in the town of the same name was left completely devastated as the river beneath burst its banks and continued to rise
A car is seen inside a residence after being washed away by floodwaters
Cars are seen stuck on the central reservation on a motorway near Alicante after the extreme floods
It comes as terrifying footage has emerged of the moment a bridge in Valencia was washed away late last night.
Paiporta bridge in the town of the same name was left completely devastated as the river beneath burst its banks and continued to rise.
Horrified onlookers watched in horror as the concrete structure crumbled into the deluge.
The scenes in Paiporta – where at least one baby was counted among the dead – are among many to have been captured by locals.
Rainfall in the town of Chiva in Valencia reached a staggering 491 litres per square metre yesterday, according to Spain’s meteorological agency.
The town, just 20 miles west of Valencia, endured this amount of rain in just eight hours – the typical amount of rain seen in a full year and an ‘extraordinary accumulation’, the agency added.
The death toll is expected to rise sharply as emergency services continue their searches for dozens of people said to be still unaccounted for.
Another clip revealed the moment a helpless woman was swept away by unstoppable flood waters.
Cars taken in a mudslide are pictured in a flooded street in Alora, near Malaga, on October 30
Members of the INFOCA (Andalusia Fire Prevention and Extinction Plan) clean a flooded street in Cartama, near Malaga
People walk along the road after leaving their homes flooded by the floods in Paiporta
A view of the damaged car after a deluge brought up to 200 liters of rain per square meter (50 gallons per square yard) in hours in La Torre neighborhood of Valencia
The unidentified victim could be heard screaming as the deluge pushed her down a waterlogged street.
Horrified onlookers stood on balconies above stretched out their arms in a futile attempt to come to her rescue in the chilling clip.
Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez this morning sought to reassure victims that the government ‘would not abandon’ them.
‘All of Spain weeps with all of you. Our absolute priority is to help you… We won’t abandon you,’ Sanchez said in a televised address.
‘For those who at this moment are still looking for their loved ones, the whole of Spain weeps with you,’ Sanchez added, vowing to ‘rebuild your streets, your squares, your bridges’.
Spain’s government announced the creation of a crisis committee – the equivalent of Britain’s Cobra emergency response committee – as the size of the disaster became apparent.
The country has experienced similar autumn storms in recent years, but nothing compared to the devastation over the last two days.
It is the worst flood-related catastrophe in Spain since 1996, when 87 people died and 180 were injured in a flash flood near Biesca in the Pyrenees.
The worst-hit areas are the province of Valencia where political leader Carlos Mazon first went public with news of ‘several fatalities’ in the early hours of this morning and the small town of Letur in the province of Albacete where six people including two council workers are said to be missing after a river burst its banks.
A car is stranded after flash floods and heavy rain hit Valencia
Residents walk next to piled up cars on railway tracks following deadly floods in Sedavi, south of Valencia, eastern Spain, on October 30, 2024
Rescuers attempt to evacuate a woman and her dog from their flooded house
Spain’s government announced the creation of a crisis committee – the equivalent of Britain’s Cobra emergency response committee
Cars are photographed piled up after being swept away by floods in Valencia, Spain, Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2024
Floods triggered by torrential rains in Spain’s eastern Valencia region has left 51 people dead, rescue services said on October 30
Residents are pictured next to cars piled in a street covered in mud following floods in Picanya, near Valencia, eastern Spain, on October 30, 2024
Two Civil Guard officers are feared to be among the fatalities after becoming trapped in a flooded basement in their police station in Paiporta near the city of Valencia, the capital of the province of the same name.
In nearby Massannassa on Valencia’s outskirts, a man died after getting trapped in a lift as he went down to a flooded underground car park beneath his apartment to check on his vehicle.
Heartbreaking footage from the same town appeared to show elderly and sickly residents of a nursing home sat in wheelchairs as filthy floodwater pooled around their knees.
Another heart-pounding clip showed a woman battling desperately to stay afloat as she tried to save her dog from their flooded home.
Rescuers just managed to reach her before her head slipped below the water and winched her to safety.
