Torrential Rain Floods Valencia Again, La Liga Match Postponed Two Years After Deadly 2024 Disaster

Valencia got hit again. Torrential rain swept through the Spanish region Wednesday night, flooding streets, overwhelming drains and forcing a La Liga match to be scrapped minutes before kickoff, according to Al Jazeera.

The storm arrives just under two years after the October 2024 catastrophe that killed more than 220 people in Valencia province, one of Spain's deadliest natural disasters in modern history, Al Jazeera reported. Residents are reacting with heightened alarm given the proximity to the deadly 2024 disaster.

The Match That Never Started

Levante's Matchday 6 fixture against Athletic Club at the Ciutat de València stadium was scheduled for 9:30 p.m. local time Wednesday. It never happened.

According to OneFootball, citing the Spanish outlet El Correo, the downpour started around 8:30 p.m. and by the 9 p.m. warm-up the ball wouldn't roll on the pitch. Referee Quintero González consulted both clubs and called it off, with stadium videoboards confirming the postponement at 9:22 p.m., eight minutes before the scheduled start.

Power failed in sections including the press area and some vomitories, leaving fans sheltering in the dark and using phone flashlights, per OneFootball. The players' tunnel connecting the dressing rooms to the pitch flooded completely, according to The Sports Encounter.

At 10:08 p.m., Civil Protection issued a flooding alert and cleared fans still waiting outside the stadium, OneFootball reported.

Athletic's director of football, Mikel González, called the postponement a straightforward call and said the match will be rearranged after the international break, since Unai Simón, Nico Williams and Aymeric Laporte are away on national team duty. He noted neither club is in European competition this season, meaning a continental midweek slot, the first of which falls on October 15, could be used to reschedule. As of publication, no new date had been set, according to El Correo.

Levante forward Iñaki Williams said the team tried to play but the referee determined it was unsafe. Levante assistant coach Vicente Iborra pointed specifically to the lightning risk on top of the wind and rain.

Warnings Were Already Up

The Generalitat Valenciana's Emergency Coordination Center had issued an orange rain alert for the region running from 4 p.m. to 11:59 p.m. Wednesday, along with a yellow thunderstorm warning, according to an update from the Universitat Politècnica de València. Outdoor activity at affected campuses was suspended as a precaution before the worst of the rain arrived.

Beyond the stadium, Al Jazeera and other outlets reported swift-water rescues across the Valencian Community, with firefighters and civil protection units evacuating residents from flooded homes and vehicles. Spanish military units were deployed to support the rescue effort, and roads, bus routes and some train and flight schedules were disrupted, according to reporting republished by IndiaVision. Agricultural land in the region, a major part of the local economy, was also reported inundated.

Currently available reporting does not include a confirmed death toll or injury count from this week's flooding, and the scale of damage compared to 2024 remains unclear.

A Familiar Argument

Valencia isn't the only place that's had a brutal flood year. Flash flooding killed at least 139 people in and around Kerrville, Texas, in the Hill Country disaster, and separate flash floods have struck Arizona, New Mexico, Wisconsin, New York City and the Washington, D.C. area, according to Breitbart's coverage of those events.

That Texas disaster set off a political fight. Democrats, including Rosie O'Donnell, blamed the Trump administration's cuts to NOAA and the National Weather Service for contributing to the death toll, Breitbart reported. Meteorologists cited by Breitbart pushed back, saying NOAA and NWS had extra staff on hand and performed their forecasting duties adequately during the storm. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent separately criticized former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers for what Bessent called politicizing the tragedy.

That dispute remains unresolved in the sourcing: no independent audit or congressional finding cited in these reports settles whether staffing levels affected the Texas outcome one way or the other.

Back in Valencia, the open question is simpler and more immediate. With no replacement date yet for Levante-Athletic and emergency crews still working through the aftermath of Wednesday's storm, the region is waiting to see whether this week's rain turns out to be a bad night or something closer to a repeat of 2024.