Spain takes to social media in search for flood-missing

Wreckage of cars and debris is piled up in the streets of Paiporta, on October 31, 2024, covered in mud after flash floods ravaged this area of Valencia region, eastern Spain. [AFP]

When Vanesa Molina saw the plight of hundreds of compatriots desperately seeking news of their missing loved ones following Spain's worst floods in decades, she decided to act.

The marketing specialist, 38, now manages the Instagram account "@dana.desaparecidos" where people can post photographs and information about their missing relatives.

Spanish authorities estimate dozens of people remain missing as rescue workers search the mud and debris, particularly in the eastern Valencia region. More than 200 people have been confirmed dead.

"The idea was to try to contribute and help as I could," with the social media posts designed to "reach as many people as possible", Molina told AFP by telephone.

Families send her photographs with a precise description of the clothes, telephone number and vehicle registration plate, as many victims were trapped in their cars when the floods surged on Tuesday.

"His name is Ramon Garcia Gisbert. He lives in Albal. He's my brother. His telephone has been switched off since Tuesday. Please, share to find him."

Such are the dozens of messages that have been posted on Molina's account, which she manages from an island in the Mediterranean Balearic archipelago off the coast of the Valencia region.

In Paiporta, a suburb of Spain's third-largest city Valencia and ground zero of the floods, dozens of residents remain unaccounted for.

Chayma Bouchafra's uncle Aziz was among the missing for two days. Unable to contact him as the telephone and internet networks were partly down, she launched an appeal for help on X.

The attempt worked: the post amassed more than 4,000 shares and 216,000 views, and Aziz was found within 24 hours, Bouchafra said on the platform.

Heart-warming messages

Social media is not the only channel frantic relatives have resorted to.

Public broadcaster TVE and major radio station Cadena SER have dedicated air time to announcements aimed at locating the missing.

But as hopes of finding survivors fade three days after the disaster, more and more relatives only find the dreaded news at morgues.

Two temporary morgues have been set up in Valencia city to identify bodies, including one at the courthouse where only relatives are occasionally allowed to pass a police cordon, an AFP journalist saw.

The regional authorities have asked families of the victims not to go to morgues because the staff will be unable to provide them with enough information or service.

However, a surge of online solidarity has helped make up for that lack.

Volunteers heading to the hardest-hit areas provide information to the administrators of online accounts dedicated to information about missing people.

Nurses sent to the town of Benetusser near Valencia city "inform me about the situation in real-time", said Molina, who updates her Instagram page once someone has been found.

"We have had dozens of instances of good news" and moving messages of thanks, she added.

One enterprising internet user has even used all the data to create an interactive tool on Google Maps where each GPS point provides the name, surname, age and measurements of the missing person.

Photographs of animals have also been shared by the hundred, occasionally with a happy ending, including for a Bull Terrier with an injured muzzle found in Benetusser on Friday, according to the account "@danadesaparecidos Valencia".