Floods in eastern Spain leave at least 4 dead, authorities say, as rescuers evacuate stranded residents

As of 4:39 p.m. ET, Monday, Oct. 19, 2026

Severe flooding in eastern Spain has left at least four people dead in recent days, authorities said Monday, AFP reported. "We are talking about three deaths," Valencia regional president Juan Francisco Pérez Llorca told reporters, according to AFP. Firefighters in neighboring Catalonia reported on Sunday the death of a woman who fell into a rain-swollen stream, AFP reported.

Other outlets have reported their own figures. The Spanish news agency EFE reported at 11:48 a.m. ET that at least four people had died, three in the Valencia region and one in Catalonia. Reuters said in a post on X at 2:15 p.m. ET: "Floods and storms killed at least three people."

Authorities were still assessing the damage, AFP reported, and the toll may change.

Separately, in southern Spain, a 41-year-old man was killed Monday when a rock fell on his car during a storm on the outskirts of Benaoján, in the province of Málaga, Andalusia's 112 emergency service said, El País reported.

In Els Poblets, residents were assessing the damage left by the flooding, with cars piled up and mud-coated furniture left outside homes, AFP reported. Across the region, rescuers were working to evacuate stranded residents, according to AFP.

The Girona River overflowed in Els Poblets, in Alicante province, early Monday, the town council said on social media, Europa Press reported. The town's mayor, José Luis Mas, said there had been no deaths or serious injuries in the town, EFE reported.

Floodwaters swept away parked cars, submerged roads and cut off residents, some of whom had to be airlifted to safety, AFP reported. Security forces carried out more than 400 rescues in the Valencia region by air and land, according to the Spanish government's representative there, Pilar Bernabé, AFP reported.

Spain's national weather agency, AEMET, warned that although the "most critical" phase of the torrential rain had passed, the weather situation "remains adverse," EFE reported.

The Valencia regional government said Monday that it had lifted lockdown and travel restrictions in towns along the southern coast of Valencia province and the northern coast of Alicante province.