Since the floods ravaged the southeastern Spanish village on Tuesday evening, the Castilla-La Mancha region's rescuers have been working round the clock to locate them, locked in a race against time.
Two women have already been pronounced dead in the region as a result of the rising waters which have claimed at least 158 victims across the Iberian country.
But with "dozens and dozens" still missing, according to a government minister, that toll looks set to rise.
The five disappeared from Letur -- population 950 -- were two council employees in a van likely swept away by the torrent of water and mud, as well as a couple and a woman, Albacete Civil Guard spokesman Jose Amado told AFP.
Nearly a hundred people have been combing an area of two square kilometres (0.8 square miles) of rugged mountain terrain to try and find them.
- Sniffer dogs -
The search team brings together workers from the Civil Guard, the army, fire brigade, environmental officers, civil protection and the Red Cross.
Besides this array of rescuers, the searchers have access to "two sniffer dogs, a helicopter and three drone teams with thermal imaging cameras operating 24 hours a day", Amado said.
The incessant din of their propellers buzzing in the blue Castilian sky bore witness to the intensity of the search.
But the overflowing river, which has swept away a section of the historic part of the village, is complicating the work.
Though Letur saw "paradoxically" little rain, it had the misfortune of being northwest of the Murcia basin "where it rained a lot, 300 litres per square metre", the Civil Guard spokesman said.
"So all the valleys had to absorb it, and here the water came in through the canal, then passed over it with great force and blew everything up, causing a disaster," Amado added.
At the lush green entrance to the village, security tape barred residents from returning to their tiled-roof and white-walled houses, some of which were now smeared in mud.
Entire stretches of picturesque historic buildings lie on the ground, while the floods partially destroyed a bridge and left the village square little more than a pile of rubble.
Resident Rosa Lucia was unsure if she "still has a house".
The fire brigade evacuated the 70-year-old and her dog from the roof.
"I'm still in shock, it was like a horror film," Lucia said.
Her car was swept away by the river, by now slowed to just a trickle again.
- 'No words' -
Letur's water and electricity were restored Thursday, while villagers who were unable to access their homes were rehoused with relatives.
The families of those missing have made the town hall a rallying point for keeping themselves up to date on the search's progress.
But their faces betray their despair.
"Here we all know each other, we're one big family. There are no words to explain how we feel," said 21-year-old student Miguel Rivero, reeling off the first names of each of the victims.
Among them is a couple in their 30s, whose wife is "a former employee of my father's company and her husband a colleague of my mother's," he said.
The mother in question was inconsolable while talking about the missing young woman.
"I watched her grow up," she blurted out between sobs.
Covered in mud from head to toe, Rivero was lending a hand to his uncle, whose whole house and its belongings have been devastated from the furniture up to his prized vintage car.
"Everything is trashed, but it's still equipment," the student said, his arms loaded up with the contents of his uncle's garage.
Spain flooding 'catastrophe' should serve as a warning, EU says at nature summit
Cali, Colombia (AFP) Oct 31, 2024 -
European officials pointed Thursday to devastating flooding in Spain as a reminder of the self-harming effects of humans' destruction of nature, urging delegates at a deadlocked UN biodiversity conference in Colombia to "act."
European Commission envoy Florika Fink-Hooijer said the "catastrophe" in Spain's Valencia region earlier this week highlighted the link between biodiversity loss and human-caused climate change.
Worsening droughts and flooding cause the loss of plant species such as trees -- which serve as a bulwark against some of the worst effects of global warming.
"If we act on biodiversity, we at least can buffer some of the climate impacts," Fink-Hooijer said at a press conference in the city of Cali, host of the 16th Conference of Parties (COP16) to the UN's Convention on Biodiversity.
"At this COP we really have a chance to act," said the envoy, who is also the European Commission director-general for environment.
- Funding hurdle -
The summit, which started on October 21, is tasked with assessing, and ramping up, progress on nature protection plans and funding to achieve 23 UN targets agreed in 2022 to stop species destruction.
It is a followup to the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework agreed in Canada two years ago, where it was decided that $200 billion per year be made available for biodiversity programs by 2030.
This must include $20 billion per year going from rich to poor nations trying to reach the targets, which include placing 30 percent of the Earth's land and sea under protection by 2030.
Due to wrap up on Friday, the talks in Cali remain stuck mainly on the modalities of funding, even as new research points to more than a quarter of animal and plant species facing the risk of extinction.
Developing countries have called for more money.
They also want a brand-new fund under the umbrella of the UN's biodiversity convention, where all parties -- rich and poor -- would have representation in decision-making.
Rich countries insist they are on track to meet their funding targets. Most are opposed to a new fund.
Another point of contention is on how best to share the profits of digitally sequenced genetic data taken from animals and plants with the communities they come from.
Such data, much of it collected in poor countries, is notably used in medicines and cosmetics that make their developers billions.
European Parliament member Cesar Luena, who is from Spain, on Thursday thanked delegates "for all the demonstrations of solidarity in this summit" as the flooding death toll soared beyond 150.
Why have Spain floods killed so many?
Madrid (AFP) Oct 31, 2024 -
Powerful storms turbo-charged by a warming planet, poor urban planning and carelessness combined with catastrophic consequences in Spain's deadliest floods in a generation, experts told AFP.
Authorities in the European country have announced a provisional toll of 158 dead and the figure is feared to rise as rescuers search for bodies under the rubble and mud.
- Exceptionally violent weather -
Torrential rains drenched areas of the eastern Valencia region with a year's worth of precipitation in a matter of hours, according to national weather service AEMET.
In Chiva, west of the coastal city of Valencia, it recorded 491 litres of rain per square metre (49.1 centimetres).
The deluge was linked to a storm phenomenon common for the season where cold air travels over the Mediterranean Sea's warm waters and forms intense rain clouds.
Scientists say human-driven climate change is increasing the temperatures of the world's waters and increasing the ferocity of storms.
The warmer Mediterranean and time of year acted as fuel for the torrential rains in a "dramatic" cocktail attributable to climate change, said Jorge Olcina, a climate expert at Alicante University.
When storms reach such levels, they can have an effect similar to "hurricanes" or "tropical cyclones", he added in an audio message to AFP.
- Dry and artificial soils -
The parched soil in the hardest-hit areas compounded the problem after Spain endured two consecutive years of intense droughts.
The ground could not absorb such a quantity of water, giving rise to flash flooding that raged through settlements.
The Valencia region is also covered with many areas where natural spaces have made way for impermeable concrete.
This urban development is "uncontrolled and ill-adapted to the natural characteristics of the territory", amplifying the danger of powerful storms, said Pablo Aznar of the Socioeconomic Observatory of Floods and Droughts.
The population density of the Valencia region, which hosts Spain's third-largest city of the same name with a population of almost 1.9 million inhabitants, also contributed.
Population density "was a very important factor" and posed a "challenge" to the authorities, said Aznar.
- Rush hour on the roads -
The timing of the storm could not have been worse as it picked up late on Tuesday when motorists were hitting the roads during the evening rush hour.
Many victims were caught by surprise in their vehicles as they returned home or on the street, with the raging waters plucking some clinging to lampposts or trees.
Such scenes could have been avoided had citizens been warned on time to allow them to shelter at home, according to Hannah Cloke, a hydrology professor at Britain's University of Reading.
- Lack of care -
AEMET had issued a red warning for the Valencia region on Tuesday morning, but the civil protection service only sent its telephone alerts advising people not to leave home after 8:00 pm (1900 GMT).
But some people admitted they left home even after receiving the alert, suggesting a poor comprehension of the emergency.
Although there were "communication failures", the responsibility is shared because Spain lacks a "culture of risk", Aznar told AFP.
"Our collective mentality is still not sufficiently adapted to new extreme weather phenomena."
Olcina agreed. "We have to vastly improve risk education in schools, but also in the whole population, so they know how to act in the event of an immediate risk."
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