Important Takeaways:

• The flooding began at lunchtime on Tuesday, wreaking havoc from the provinces of Malaga in the south to Valencia in the east.
• Tragically, a baby was listed as one of the casualties by officials on Wednesday, with a reported national death toll now sitting at 64.
• It is the worst flood-related natural disaster to hit Spain in almost 30 years – after flooding in 1996 killed 87.
• Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez gave an emergency briefing this morning saying: “Our thoughts go out to those whose homes and possessions have been devastated and whose lives have been covered in mud.
• President of the Valencia region Carlos Mazon said in a chilling statement: “There are bodies and bodies continuing to appear in places we hadn’t been able to access before.”
• Officials have said it is “Impossible” to put a definite number on the amount of people killed.
• A severe weather warning has been issued in Catalonia, northern Spain, marking a move away from the hard-hit southern and eastern regions.
• Meteocat, the Catalan weather service, has warned of hail that could be as big as two centimeters and possible tornadoes or waterspouts.
• Their warning sits at a level six – the highest possible.
• In one small area on the outskirts of Valencia city, 40 people are either dead or missing, police sources said.
• Chiva, a town near Valencia, was pummeled by more than a year’s worth of rain in just eight hours.
• There are also fears the Cirat-Vallat dam – in Castellon, north of Valencia, could burst with officials putting out a warning after they couldn’t open the gates.
• Why was Spain hit by flooding?
• In layman’s terms, more warm and moist Mediterranean air than usual was sucked high into the atmosphere after a cold system hit the country from the south.
• The easterly wind then pushed all those clouds and rain into eastern Spain.
• Three to four months of rain fell in some places over the space of 24 hours.
• The DANA system hit southern Spain as it arrived from Morocco yesterday and is now expected to head west over southern Portugal.

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