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Before and after satellite images show Spain devastation

The images provided by commercial earth imaging provider, Planet Labs, were taken in the days since Tuesday
The images provided by commercial earth imaging provider, Planet Labs, were taken in the days since Tuesday

New satellite imagery covering Spain's Valencia region shows the scale of devastation recent flooding has wrought on the area.

The images from commercial earth imaging provider, Planet Labs, were taken in the days since Tuesday, when a massive storm system brought a year’s worth of rain to the south-east of Spain in the space of few hours.

At least 211 people have since been confirmed dead, making the flooding one of the worst natural disasters in the country’s history, and the deadliest flooding to hit Europe since the 1970s.

Thousands of soldiers have been deployed to search for people who are still missing, and help survivors.


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Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said that his government is mobilising "all the resources necessary, as long as they are needed" to address the damage.

Yesterday, he visited the national meteorological office in Madrid, seemingly in a show of solidarity with the agency which has been criticised in relation to the timing of warnings it issued.

The office said further significant rainfall is likely in parts of the southern Spain on Saturday into Sunday also.

Over the last two years, Spain has suffered through a drought. When the deluge happened, the ground was too hard to absorb the rain, leading to the flash floods.

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The floodwater tore through large parts of Valencia city, situated on the coast, carrying with it silt and mud from the agricultural land to the west.

With about 75,000 homes still without electricity, firefighters have been siphoning petrol from cars that had been abandoned in the floods to power generators to get domestic supplies back on.

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To the south of Valencia, the Planet Labs images show coastal wetlands were filled with the sediment-laden flood water.