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PAIPORTA: 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 kilometers 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 their cars in case the rain predicted by the media arrived.
Both were among the 237 people killed, mostly in the province of Valencia, in Spain’s worst natural disaster in a generation.
“They were my whole life. I will fight for them because they died unjustly,” Garcia said, criticizing the regional government for failing to alert residents in time.

- ‘So people remember’ -

The floods hit 78 municipalities, sweeping away 130,000 vehicles and damaging thousands of homes, and generating 800,000 tons of debris, mainly around Valencia, Spain’s third-largest city.
“We were left with only what we were wearing,” recalled Pedro Allegue, an 81-year-old retiree in Paiporta, one of the hardest-hit towns, where 45 people died.
His voice echoed through the empty rooms of the ground-floor home he and his wife had escaped via a courtyard stairwell. Part of the house remains in ruins.
The thick mud that covered the town has given way to the roar of machinery as homes are rebuilt.
The floods affected more than 8,000 businesses, some of which are still struggling to reopen, according to the Valencian business confederation Confecomerc.
“I lost six months of my life, but I’ve reopened,” said David Parra, 51, at his trophy shop in Paiporta, which he escaped on the day of the floods by breaking through the bathroom ceiling.
He has placed the books and shovels used by volunteers and family members to remove mud in his storefront display.
“It’s so people remember,” he said, holding a small tile reading: “The flood reached this point. Only the people save the people.”

- ‘Hard to move on’ -

Thousands of volunteers helped residents in the days after the floods, when locals felt abandoned by the authorities. Tensions erupted into protests during a visit by the Spanish royal family to Paiporta.
About three kilometers (two miles) away in Alfafar, noisy machines now tear down the remains of the Orba school.
The floods disrupted classes for more than 48,000 pupils and damaged 115 schools. Eight schools, including Orba, must be rebuilt, and students began the new year in prefabricated classrooms.
“Many children freeze or become anxious at the first sign of rain,” said Ana Torres, 47, as she escorted her two children to temporary classrooms.
She returned to her water-damaged home a month ago but said much remains to be rebuilt.
“Not being able to live life as before makes it hard to move on,” she said.

- Protests -

In Catarroja, where 25 people died, a wall bears the message: “20:11. Neither forget nor forgive,” marking the time flood warnings reached residents’ mobile phones. By then, it was too late.
“When I managed to speak to my father at 7:50 pm, he was drowning,” said Rosa Alvarez, 51, at the house in Catarroja where her 80-year-old father died after floodwaters knocked down one of its walls.
Alvarez, who heads an association representing victims of the floods, is fighting in court for accountability over what they consider negligence by the authorities. She said she feels her father was “killed” by their inaction.
Campaigners have taken to the streets every month, demanding the resignation of the head of the regional government Carlos Mazon over his handling of the disaster, with the next demonstration scheduled for Saturday.
Regional authorities insist they did not have the information needed to warn people sooner.
“This isn’t just a personal wound, it’s a wound we all share,” said Alvarez. “We have to make sure something like this never happens again.”

TOKYO: Japan’s ruling LDP will sign a coalition deal later Monday, its new partner party said, paving the way for Sanae Takaichi to become the country’s first woman premier and lifting the Nikkei to a new record.
The 11th-hour announcement by the Japan Innovation Party (JIP) came just a day before the lower house was due to vote on Takaichi’s appointment as the fifth prime minister in as many years.
“After giving it careful thought last night, I telephoned (LDP) president Takaichi this morning to reach a coalition agreement,” said Hirofumi Yoshimura, JIP co-head.
“At 6:00 pm, we will formally sign the agreement,” he told reporters.
Takaichi, 64, seen as a China hawk and traditionalist from the right wing of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), won the party leadership this month.
But her bid to become premier was derailed by the collapse of the LDP’s coalition with the Komeito party after 26 years.
Komeito said the LDP had failed to tighten party funding rules following a damaging slush fund scandal.
It was also unnerved by Takaichi’s previous harsh rhetoric on China and her regular visits to a Tokyo shrine that honors Japan’s war dead, including war criminals.
Likely to win
The clock was ticking for Takaichi to be appointed.
US President Donald Trump is due to visit at the end of the month on his way to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in South Korea.
Details of a trade deal between Washington and Tokyo remain unresolved, and Trump also wants Japan to stop Russian energy imports and boost defense spending.
The LDP’s new coalition with JIP is still two seats shy of the lower house majority needed for Takaichi to be appointed.
But Takaichi is still likely to win since in a second-round run-off vote she only needs more support than the other candidate.
The announcement of a new coalition pushed the Nikkei 225 index up more than three percent to a new record above 49,000 points.
Yutaka Miura, analyst at Mizuho Securities, said that investors were cheered by hopes of “proactive fiscal policies” by Takaichi, Bloomberg reported.
Takaichi has in the past backed aggressive monetary easing and expanded government spending, apeing the “Abenomics” named after her mentor, former premier Shinzo Abe.
Minority government
During the leadership campaign, Takaichi toned down her rhetoric both on the economy and on China.
Being in a minority in both houses of parliament, the new coalition will need support from other parties to push through legislation.
The JIP wants to lower the consumption tax rate on food to zero and to abolish corporate and organizational donations, Kyodo News reported Sunday.
The smaller party is also in favor of reducing the number of lawmakers. Reports say it will not hold any ministerial posts in Takaichi’s cabinet.
Besides handling Trump, Takaichi’s many challenges ahead will include addressing the slow-burning crisis of Japan’s falling population and boosting its flatlining economy.
Takaichi will also be under pressure to halt the steady slide in support for the LDP, which has governed Japan almost non-stop since 1955.
Smaller parties gaining support include the populist Sanseito, which calls immigration a “silent invasion,” even though foreign-born residents make up only around three percent of the population.