One week after catastrophic flooding devasted eastern Spain, María Murgui still holds hope that her father is alive and among the unknown number of the missing. He went out to save his motorbike during the deluge. He called his family to say he was OK at one point but they have not heard from him again. At least 218 have been confirmed dead after a deluge caused by heavy rains on Oct. 29 and the next morning swamped entire communities in Spain’s Valencia region, catching most off guard. Regional authorities have been heavily criticized for having issued alerts to mobile phones some two hours after the disaster had started. Authorities have yet to any give an estimate of the missing, and recovery efforts are slowly moving forward.
