One year on, Spain’s flood survivors rebuild and remember

When the first autumn rains fell this year, Toni Garcia drew the curtains.

Rain is a painful reminder of last year’s devastating floods that killed more than 200 people in Spain, including her husband and only daughter.

“Everything comes back to me. From being with my family to being alone,” Garcia said through tears at her home in Benetusser, on the southern outskirts of the Mediterranean port city of Valencia.

“On October 29, 2024, many families, including mine, perished.”

It did not rain in Benetusser that grey Tuesday, but a “tsunami of reeds and water” triggered by torrential downpours kilometres away surged into her street.

Garcia watched from the balcony as the flood approached.

Her husband, Miguel, 63, and daughter, Sara, 24, a nurse, had gone to the basement garage to move t