Briton describes dogs’ ‘impossible’ escape as Valencia floods swept through home

A British teacher living outside Valencia has described her dogs’ “impossible” escape as deadly floods swept through her home and destroyed everything on the ground floor.

Annabelle Reece, 50, who moved to Spain from Ashford in Kent 23 years ago, had to hide in her car as “hailstones the size of fists” fell during last week’s storm.

She said the ensuing flood left a pile of rubble “a metre high” and destroyed everything on the ground floor of her home in the town of Godelleta.

For the past week she has had no running water and been reliant on neighbours and friends for food and washing facilities.

Ms Reece said there has been an outpouring of support from volunteers in the area, who have helped to clear away the thick layers of mud and debris that still cover houses, streets and roads.

Last Tuesday Ms Reece, a teacher at Colegio Internacional Levante in Chiva, was desperate to get home after work to her two 10-month-old golden retriever puppies when the worst of the floods struck.

“I started driving home after work, I was driving over the mountain, which was difficult as it was collapsing,” she told the PA news agency.

“What should have been a road was an ocean.

“I stayed in my car for four hours while hailstones the size of fists fell on the car.

“The rain stopped at about one o’clock in the morning and I went to go home.

“I decided to try some other ways to get to another place where there should be access – there’s a bridge that had collapsed.

“I had to abandon my car and walk the rest of the way and wade through a river to get home.”

When she got to her front door she could not open it because of furniture and mud blocking the entrance, but was relieved to see her dogs had climbed to safety on her home’s first floor.

“The dogs were at the window at the top,” she said.

“We’ve got those baby gates to stop them going upstairs and honestly it’s impossible for them to get up there, but they got up there.

“The dogs have been tied up for six days as we can’t let them run free as the mud is dangerous.”

Ms Reece said “everything” on the ground floor of her home is unsalvageable because of the floods.

“Everything on the ground floor is damaged really, you clean something and then you just realise that it’s full of mud and not salvageable,” she said.

“We’ve got a swimming pool but the pool is full of mud and we’re getting advice not to touch the mud as people are getting infected and ill.”

She said the supermarkets are completely empty. While they have received little government help, she said there has been “incredible” support from the community.

“We’ve had friends, family, people that we know, people that we don’t know coming to help,” she said.

“We don’t have any running water but the neighbours have water, so we’ve been showering there.

“We’ve got family who’ve managed to get to us every day, to bring us food.

“There was also a pile of rubble at the back of the house over a metre high and it’s been cleared by volunteers.”

More than 200 people have been killed in Spain’s worst flooding disaster this century, and the search for an unknown number of missing people continues.

The Valencia regional government has been heavily criticised for not sending flood warnings to mobile phones until 8pm on Tuesday, when flooding had already begun in some areas.