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Flooding in Spain
Status: Closed
| Type of posting | Posting date(EST): | Summary | Downloads |
|---|---|---|---|
| Event Summary | 11/6/2024 10:00:00 AM |
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Event Summary | Summary
Posting Date: November 6, 2024, 10:00:00 AM
A massive flash flooding event across 29-30 October in the province of Valencia and surrounding areas killed more than 200 people and may have caused more than a billion euro in insured losses. Across Valencia, a widespread 10 or more inches of rain fell, with the town of Chiva seeing a remarkable 20 inches of rain – more than they had received in the past year and a half – in a span of just eight hours, per Spain’s meteorological agency, AEMET. It is the deadliest flood event in Europe since 1967.
The weather that drove this event was caused by a “DANA” setup, a Spanish acronym which describes a storm system isolated from the Jetstream. Cold air blowing over warm Mediterranean waters can cause the warmer air to rise quickly and form dense, moisture-laden clouds that can remain relatively stationary for an extended period. Because of its location between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea, the area of eastern Spain primarily impacted by this event is especially susceptible to this phenomenon. The storms themselves were centered over the Poyo, Turia and Magro rivers, which subsequently overflowed sending walls of rushing water that destroyed buildings, stacked cars up like toys, and threatened and in some cases took the lives of the largely unsuspecting population.
Cleanup efforts in Valencia (Manu Fernandez/AP)
The final insured loss tally will take some time to develop, but one early estimate points to insured losses potentially exceeding EUR 1 billion. A significant portion of the insured losses will be covered by the state-owned Consorcio de Compensación de Seguros (CCS), which manages the Spanish catastrophic risk insurance program. The Copernicus Emergency Mapping Service has been activated for this event, with the ID EMSR773. Downloads of flood extent shapefiles for the areas of interest within this activation can be found here. Please contact your Verisk representative with any additional questions about this event.
