Felipe VI urges Spain to learn from floods in Christmas message

King Felipe VI urged Spain to draw lessons from this year's catastrophic floods to "strengthen society and make us grow" in his Christmas message broadcast on Tuesday.

The October 29 disaster killed 231 people and devastated swathes of the eastern Valencia region, with thousands of victims now spending Christmas without loved ones, homes or property.

The tragedy was "an event difficult to accept, but from which we must all be able to draw the necessary lessons that strengthen us as a society and make us grow", Felipe said from Madrid's Royal Palace.

The European country's deadliest natural disaster in decades unleashed popular anger at the national and regional authorities for their perceived mismanagement.

Many residents received telephone alerts after water was already engulfing their homes and some municipalities went without aid for days, relying on volunteers for immediate rescue work.

Felipe and Queen Letizia felt that fury on November 3 during a visit to the ground-zero town of Paiporta, where survivors pelted them and Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez with mud in images that stunned the world.

"We have realised -- and understood -- the frustration, the pain, the impatience, the demands for a greater and more efficient coordination by the administrations," Felipe said in a subtle reference to the unrest.

The message concluded with a wish for a merry Christmas in Spanish, Catalan, Galician and Basque, the country's four official languages.