What Canada can learn from Spain’s deadly floods

The October 2024 floods in Valencia stand out as one of the worst natural disasters in the history of Spain. A cold drop weather phenomenon, also called a DANA (Depresión Aislada en Niveles Altos, in Spanish), caused torrential rains, particularly south of Valencia. Some areas received record-breaking rainfall, with a year’s worth of rain in just a few hours.

The resulting floods destroyed everything in their path and took the lives of at least 234 people. The tragedy led to a huge wave of criticism against the authorities, both at the local and national level, for their uncoordinated and slow response. Residents said that they had only received civil protection alerts on their phones after 8 pm, even though the heavy rains had started in the early afternoon of October 29, 2024. By then, many were already trapped in their homes, under several meters of water.

The authorities were also criticized for their lack of prior flood prevention efforts and the little aid provided in the days following the disaster. The Spanish government also turned down an offer of support from nearby France. As a result, many felt abandoned and helpless. In the disaster areas, the anger against the authorities was so high that the visit of the Spanish King Felipe VI and the Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, in Paiporta, one of the most affected towns south of Valencia, was disrupted when angry residents threw objects and mud at them.

For Eliana Harrigan, with the NGO Onewater, the floods demonstrated failures at every stage of  emergency planning from being prepared (before), the response (during), and the recovery (after). “One of the key objectives of emergency planning is not to cause unnecessary suffering or at least minimize this as much as possible. I don’t think Spain did that. There was a lot of unnecessary suffering,” said Harrigan. “What happened in Spain is not the case to follow if you want to increase your climate resilience.” 

Lack of anticipation?

Could the tragedy in Valencia have been avoided? Could more lives have been saved? These are big questions. A few weeks after the tragedy, major floods also hit the city of Malaga. However, residents in risk zones received alerts on their phones the night before and police went door-to-door visiting homes along riverbanks and flood zones as part of a pre-emptive evacuation program.

Malaga suffered through extreme flooding, with streets becoming torrents and river overflow systems pushed to their limits. But there were no reported casualties, a stark contrast to the prior situation in Valencia. “We know that an alert twenty-four hours before the arrival of a storm or heat wave can reduce the damage that follows by 30%,” noted Celeste Saulo, secretary general of the World Meteorological Organization in an interview with the French newspaper ‘Libération.’ Experts believe the lack of early warning is probably the primary cause of the high death toll in Valencia.

Since the tragedy, the regional government of Carlos Mazón and the Spanish government of Pedro Sánchez have not stopped accusing each other for being responsible for what happened. In Valencia, several demonstrations involving well over 100,000 people were also held to demand accountability from the authorities and the resignation of, among others, Carlos Mazón. The latter has since acknowledged that there were mistakes in the management of the crisis, but he has still refused to resign.

How to reduce risks? 

How can risks be reduced in the face of events that are becoming more and more extreme due to climate change? The storm that hit Spain brought intense and prolonged rainfall to the Valencia region, overwhelming natural and urban drainage systems. Experts also  pointed to the high-level of urbanization in flood-prone areas near the Poyo Ravine which crosses the town of Paiporta as a contributing factor to what happened. 

For Hossein Bonakdari, Associate Professor at the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Ottawa, close collaboration between policymakers and engineers is required to improve long-term resilience to natural disasters such as flooding. They should, he recently noted, “establish data-driven policies by integrating engineering assessments, climate projections, and historical flood data, guiding the creation of flood-resistant building codes and infrastructure standards.”

Experts have long said that one of the keys to responding to increasingly intense climate phenomena is less cement and more nature. “Resilient land use planning and zoning regulations reduce exposure by restricting development in high-risk areas, while post-flood assessments allow policymakers and engineers to learn from past events, improving standards and infrastructure,” added Bonakdari. 

What can we learn from Spain’s deadly floods? 

One of the main lessons is the crucial role of good governance at all levels, with policies that should be created in the context of increasing climate change driven natural disasters. Indeed, policies that address preventative activity, but also the aftermath of natural disasters with appropriate emergency response plans that include a clear delineation of responsibilities between municipal, provincial and federal authorities, is a must.

Raising public awareness of flood risks is another key lesson. After receiving a civil protection alert at 8:11 pm on October 29, some residents of Valencia still went out to do their shopping or continued their evening plans. As a result, many found themselves stuck in shopping centres or in restaurants as flood waters rose.

And while early alerts are important for saving lives too many can have the opposite effect and are likely to be ignored. As Harrigan adds, “The big question is how much we are going to normalize extreme events? If every day of the summer, for example, is an orange alert due to the heat, we need to make a new baseline.” When it comes to potential flooding risk, enhanced monitoring of rainfall and river levels, and knowing when to react, could address this issue.

Timely communication across traditional media, especially for seniors and also social media is another incredibly important aspect if lives and property are to be preserved. In the case of Valencia, a lack of clear and timely official communication from the authorities was missing throughout.

In the absence of official information, the void was quickly filled by disinformation and fake news. A typical narrative suggested the government was hiding the actual number of deaths from the public. As the European Union pointed out in the aftermath of the floods in Spain,  crisis response social media mechanisms must be in-place after any disaster to counter disinformation. And there is widespread agreement that media education is more essential than ever.

Is Canada ready to face extreme weather events?

Like Spain, Canada is not immune to extreme weather events, exacerbated by climate change, including atmospheric rivers that have impacted British Columbia, numerous summer heatwaves, violent storms in the Atlantic, and deadly floods in Quebec and Toronto. For Bonakdari, the greatest danger facing Canada is flooding, caused by overflowing rivers in flood risk areas where there is heavy urbanization. 

According to Bonakdari, focusing on land management is crucial to reduce risk and should include an end to the construction of homes and buildings on recognized flood plains. In addition to restoring natural space to rivers, he also recommends that Canada urgently upgrade its stormwater infrastructure, much of which is more than 50 years old.

Of course, when it comes to flooding, Canada is certainly no stranger and in British Columbia, the provincial government has produced ‘From Flood Risk to Resilience: a B.C. Flood Strategy to 2035’ that captures the lessons learned from the 2021 Atmospheric River flooding events and 2017 ‘Freshet’ floods.  But there are still important lessons to be reinforced from what Spain recently experienced.

First is the importance of designing towns and cities to resist flooding and where possible lowering the number of people living in or near flood zones. In extreme cases, community relocation has to be considered. And if emergency efforts in the aftermath of a disaster are to have any success, critical infrastructure such as electrical generating stations, water treatment plants and key evacuation routes must be flood-proofed. From a prevention aspect, consideration also needs to be given towards reforestation efforts and restoring floodplains and wetlands.

Emergency warning systems also need to be integrated and frequently tested, made easier to understand, and warnings sent out in a timely and measured way. And there is no question that as climate change driven natural disasters become more intense and regular, Canada will need to ensure its pool of first responders are adequately trained and ready to match what is arguably just around the corner.