Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Vincent McAviney: Europe Correspondent on the flash flood in Eastern Spain

Transcript

Vincent McAviney: Europe Correspondent on the flash flood in Eastern Spain · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Vincent mechav any Are, UK europe correspondent Vincent. The death
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: toll still rising from this funding in Spain.
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right. The death toll is now up to
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  Speaker 2: one hundred and fifty eight people with we understand it,
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  Speaker 2: one hundreds more still missing. This has been a remarkable
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  Speaker 2: and tragic event, about a year's worth of rainfall coming
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: down in just eight hours in the Valencia region. It
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: has caused widespread devastation. You really should look at the photos.
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: I mean this was completely you know, they were expecting
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  Speaker 2: bad rain, but nothing like this. It's destroyed roads and homes, buildings,
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  Speaker 2: It's taken out bridges and highways. It is utterly devastating
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  Speaker 2: and the Spanish Prime Minister has been visiting the scene
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  Speaker 2: today promising all kinds of support. There is EU wide
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  Speaker 2: support coming in for this region. And sadly, it feels
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  Speaker 2: like this death holl, I mean, just looking at these pictures,
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: the number of vehicles sort of stashed up and washed
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  Speaker 2: away in this people were just caught completely on the hop.
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: It feels like the death holl will sadly continue to rise.
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's like somebody who has picked up a box
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  Speaker 1: full of cars and just tipped them on a street.
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  Speaker 1: It's frightening to look at a lot of people angry
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  Speaker 1: about the lack of preparedness. You know, by the time
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  Speaker 1: they got the warnings, the flooding had already started.
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right, And I mean from listening to interviews
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  Speaker 2: with people on the ground, you know there had been
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  Speaker 2: a severe drought in this region of Spain for many months.
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  Speaker 2: The ground was completely sort of hard and dry, so
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  Speaker 2: this water had nowhere to go. It couldn't steep into
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  Speaker 2: the earth, so it has all just gathered so quickly.
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  Speaker 2: And I think there are questions now as to why.
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: You know, there were warnings ahead of the rainfall that
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  Speaker 2: there would be strong rainfall, but I think the reaction
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  Speaker 2: as this rainfall was going along, I mean, you know,
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  Speaker 2: there should have been a bit more perhaps, I think
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  Speaker 2: people are saying of a response after the first sort
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  Speaker 2: of two three hours of how heavy this rain was,
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  Speaker 2: to alert people to get off the roads and get
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  Speaker 2: to safe higher ground if possible.
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: Thanks so much for your time this morning. That's Vincent
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: meca Any, a UK europe correspondent. More from early edition
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: with Ryan Bridge.
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