ALFAFAR, Spain (Reuters) -The sound of rain still triggers panic in Jose Manuel Gonzalez, a year after he spent six hours clinging to a traffic light as floods in the Valencia region of Spain swept away everything in their path, killing more than 220 people including his brother.
Gonzalez, 58, said he often wakes up in a state of shock, unable to shake off memories of the night on that traffic light from where he watched his daughter hold on for her life to the awning of a nearby shop in the Valencia suburb of Alfafar, one of the worst-affected areas.
He feels responsible for his elderly mother, who is devastated after his brother was taken by a torrent of water as he tried to rescue a woman from a car that night.
Even just a drop of rain is “like an alarm, something that goes off in my head, like a flashing light, as if warning me about something,” he said.
Doctors diagnosed him with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and he was prescribed tranquilizers, which he said help him collect his thoughts and remind himself he is safe when it rains.
Weather-related natural disasters, many exacerbated by climate change, are on the rise, according to the United Nations. Studies show the prolonged time it can take to clear up after floods can also place significant stress on its victims, leaving them with long-term mental health issues.
PSYCHOLOGICAL DAMAGE AND FEAR OF THE RAIN
Governments must plan for not only the material but also the psychological damage floods inflict on victims, health experts say. Almost one in five people suffer from PTSD after flooding, according to a 2015 study in the Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness journal published by Cambridge University Press.
Some parts of Europe experienced their wettest year on record in 2024, with storms and flooding affecting an estimated 413,000 people, according to the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service. That resulted in the loss of at least 335 lives and caused at least 18 billion euros ($21 billion) of damage.
In the wake of the Valencia floods, the Spanish government created a special mental health emergency unit (USME), which along with other local mental health services has treated thousands of people in the worst-hit areas.
Almost 28% of adults affected by the floods suffered from PTSD, according to a poll of 2,275 people carried out by the regional government’s health department.
“We have people who don’t want to take a bath, or go to the sea, or be near water. There is a lot of aquaphobia,” said Julieta Mondo, a psychologist at USME.
“Trauma makes your brain constantly remind you that (the rain) is dangerous,” she added.
Treatment involves explaining to people that their reaction is normal and gradually exposing them to their fear of water, she said.
She said more women tend to suffer from the psychological effects of the floods because they are often the main caregivers in the home and struggle to balance looking after children with their own emotions, especially when it rains.
Eleven people died on Arantxa Ferrer’s street in La Torre, a suburb across the river from Valencia city. She escaped by climbing out through her terrace to a neighbour’s apartment after her ground floor flat began filling with water.
MEDICATION AND THERAPY TO ALLEVIATE PTSD
Immediately after the floods, she couldn’t sleep, she said. She would shut her eyes and all she could hear were noises of people shouting and of water. Today, with the help of medication and therapy to alleviate her PTSD she can endure the sight and sound of the rain and has even ventured out to see the river that broke its banks and that, along with the overflowing of several ravines, caused destruction and death in her neighbourhood.
Ferrer, a 47-year-old marketing executive, said her doctor has told her, “go to the window, watch the rain fall, listen to it” to overcome her fear at the sound.
Her neighbour, Juan Benet, whose sister died in the floods, was more skeptical about therapy’s benefits. An army psychologist came to speak to him but he felt no connection with the therapist who hadn’t experienced what he had, he said.
“It didn’t do anything for me, nor will it ever do anything for me, because I have it here and here,” he said, pointing at his head and heart. “This will never go away.”
With the end of the summer, the rainy season is back in Valencia. Authorities have already issued several red alerts, warning of the possibility of torrential rain and flooding that ultimately didn’t transpire.
Gonzalez, who owns a business providing psychometric tests for drivers, said he’s struggling to go back to the light-hearted person he was before the floods. He and his partner have stopped travelling and he sometimes struggles to understand when asked questions, he said.
“I want to move forward, but it’s impossible to be who I was before without the help of anti-anxiety medication,” he said. “Everything scares me. I can’t help it, all because of post-traumatic stress.”
($1 = 0.8575 euros)
(Reporting by Eva Manez, Horaci Garcia, Elena Rodriguez and Charlie Devereux; Writing by Charlie Devereux; Editing by Alexandra Hudson)
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