Spain’s flood poses far-reaching political questions

The Rambla deL Poyo is once again the innocuous little stream it normally is. Yet in a matter of hours on October 29th it and two other nearby rivers turned into raging torrents, wiping out several small towns just south of Valencia, Spain’s third city. Muddy water came to chest level. Many of the 219 people so far known to have died, with at least another 89 still missing, were trapped in ground floors or basements, or trying to take their cars out of underground car parks.