Catastrophic flooding across southeastern Spain has left at least 72 people dead, with authorities evacuating thousands as torrents of water inundated urban and rural areas. The combination of intense rainfall and storm surges turned streets into rivers, submerged highways, and halted transportation networks in Murcia, Valencia, and Almeria. This extreme weather event, classified locally as a *gota fría* or "cold drop," brought unprecedented rainfall and gale-force winds, marking one of the nation’s most severe weather-related disasters in recent history.
The flooding