A Maltese artist living in Spain has had half of his house destroyed and has lost his car in the devastating flooding that has hit the Valencia region.
Steven Scicluna, an illustrator and graphic designer, said he, his partner and their young child have been forced to live solely on the top floor of their house after the catastrophic flooding washed into the lower part of their house.
"The ground floor was inundated with 1.6m of water in the space of 2 hrs and everything there was damaged beyond repair or washed away. My car is also gone," Scicluna said.
Flash floods tore through southern Valencia this week, sweeping up people and mountains of debris and wreaking havoc on the city's infrastructure.
On Friday rescuers upped the death toll to 205 as they continue to search for survivors, saying that the floods are the region's deadliest "in a generation".
While Scicluna and his family are unharmed, they have been left reeling from the sudden loss of their new home, having only moved to the area four months ago.
Almost all of their belongings, including the family car, have been destroyed by the flooding. They said that, as the area has been declared a disaster zone, insurance will not be covering their expenses.
Scicluna has been documenting some of their recovery efforts on his social media accounts and is making a public appeal for donations to help the family get back on their feet.
"We’ve been extremely lucky to have friends help out with cleaning up the house and we’re slowly making good progress. It has also been incredibly heartening to see the Valencian public come out in solidarity to help clean the streets and households," he said.
"Still, with every passing day, it becomes apparent just how difficult the recovery process is going to be both for us and the community. The immensity of the disaster is beyond belief."
Scicluna and his partner Sara have set up a GoFundMe to help with the expense of rebuilding their home and repurchasing their necessities.
"Our intention is to only use what we need and any surplus amount will be donated to the community effort," Scicluna said.
If you would like to donate to the Scicluna family you may do so through this link.