Why Cities Flood

Dramatic mobile-phone video and eyewitness accounts tell the story of the 2024 floods that swept through towns in Valencia killing 228 people. Did climate change play a part?

On 29 October 2024 a powerful storm hit the area around Valencia in Spain. Torrential rain fell on the hills to the west of the city, causing devastating flash floods. Across the province, 228 people died. It was Europe's deadliest single, storm flood since 1967.

This film tells the story of what happened that day, through dramatic mobile-phone footage taken as floodwater poured through streets, inundated houses and turned parked cars into lethal, floating projectiles. We hear first-hand accounts from survivors who had close escapes and discover from leading scientists how climate change and the places we are chosing to build could put many more people at risk of floods in the future.