Spain is the last to flood: army enters Valencia; before and after images show devastation

By means of Siobhan RobbinsEurope correspondent

In the Spanish city of Algemesi, people are angry.

The suburb of Raval was one of the worst hit by flash floods, but residents feel abandoned.

“When the alarm came, the water was already two meters high,” Carolina shouts from her balcony.

“There were no police, firefighters or the mayor. No one came to save us.”

The distress is echoed street after street.

Carmen puts her head in her hands and cries.

“They lost everything and they lost everything,” she says, pointing to her neighbors’ homes.

Every house is in ruins and the owners are heartbroken.

Dolores shows us her house.

She said the flood reached the ceiling, but with no help coming, they had to punch holes in the walls to remove the water.

“I feel terrible. I’m terrified and very scared. My husband is sick, we need more help,” she says.

The level of destruction is enormous.

On the street we meet Noel with his children.

The youngest toddles in the mud barefoot. Yesterday he and his wife had nothing to eat. He feels helpless.

“Right now there are people who are stuck. The mud is up to their waists so they can’t open their doors. I live on a high floor so I didn’t have any problems with the flooding in my house, but I don’t done.” “I have no water, light or food,” he says.

There is a growing sense of desperation in this suburb.

At one point someone shouts “food” and people rush to grab what they can from a nearby store.

It is not clear whether they were let in by the owner or if they are looting.

The devastation is so great and at a time when people are in greatest need, they feel frustrated and alone.

In a nearby shelter we meet people from Algemesi who have become homeless due to the flood.

Carol says she has never felt so hopeless.

“There was a log that hit the front of my house. There are no walls, no ceiling. I have nothing. There’s nothing left,” she explains as she begins to cry.

For many, the initial trauma of this natural disaster has been compounded in the aftermath by a sense of loss and loneliness.