Spain’s worst flood in decades is a social disaster driven by the ruling elite’s inability to plan policies to halt climate change, or even to devise basic disaster management plans advocated by scientists.

Climate change helps explains why the storms and floods were so extreme. But questions have emerged about whether communication failures contributed to the toll.

In response, the Catholic Church has expressed its pain and condolences over the tragedy and Caritas has launched a special campaign. The flash flooding is considered the third largest natural disaster in Spain’s contemporary history,

Correction: November 4, 2024This article has been revised to reflect the following correction: An earlier version of this article misidentified one of the areas where alerts for heavy rain were issued on Monday.