Spain faces ‘incalculable’ bill after Valencia’s worst floods in a generation

The destruction wreaked by Spain’s deadliest floods in a generation in one of the country’s economic motors will leave a huge bill for the state and the insurance sector.

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Last week’s catastrophe that has killed more than 210 people nationwide gutted buildings, swept away cars, inundated fields, and wrecked transport and power infrastructure in the wealthy eastern Valencia region.

The European country now faces its “biggest disaster for a climate event”, said Mirenchu del Valle Schaan, president of the Spanish insurers’ federation UNESPA.

It is too early to estimate the total costs, but they will undoubtedly be “extremely high”, Celedonio Villamayor, director of the CCS consortium responsible for paying out compensation after natural disasters, told public broadcaster TVE.

The head of the Valencia Chamber of Commerce, Jose Vicente Morata, told the same channel the final bill would be well north of 10 billion euros (US$10.9 billion).

A person walks next to mud-covered debris following heavy rains that caused floods, near Valencia, Spain, on November 4. Photo: Reuters
A person walks next to mud-covered debris following heavy rains that caused floods, near Valencia, Spain, on November 4. Photo: Reuters

For comparison, the devastating July 2021 floods that claimed more than 200 lives in Germany, Belgium, France, Austria and the Netherlands cost almost US$43 billion, according to reinsurer Swiss Re.

  

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