Flood of the century kills at least 95 in Spain, search for bodies continues

BARRIO DE LA TORRE, Spain (AP) – Survivors of the worst natural disaster to hit Spain this century woke up to scenes of devastation Thursday after villages were destroyed by monstrous flash floods which claimed at least 95 lives.

The death toll is expected to rise as search efforts continue, with officials removing bodies from vehicles and an unknown number of people still missing.

“Unfortunately, there are dead people in some vehicles,” said Spanish Transport Minister Óscar Puente, referring to hundreds of cars and trucks stuck on mud-stained brown roads.

The aftermath of the floods bore an uncanny resemblance to the damage caused by a powerful hurricane or tsunami.

Cars piled on top of each other like broken toys, uprooted trees, downed power lines and household items all covered in a layer of mud covered the streets of Barrio de la Torre, a suburb of Valencia, just one of dozens of damaged neighborhoods from the hard zone. hit the Valencia region, where 92 people died between Tuesday night and Wednesday morning.

Walls of rushing water turned narrow streets into death traps and spawned rivers that ripped through houses and swept away cars, people and anything else in their path. He tore down bridges and made the roads unrecognizable.

“The neighborhood is destroyed, all the cars are on top of each other, it’s basically destroyed,” said Christian Viena, owner of a bar in Barrio de la Torre.

Regional authorities said late Wednesday that no one was left stranded on rooftops or in cars in need of rescue after helicopters rescued about 70 people. But ground crews and citizens continued to inspect vehicles and homes that were damaged by the onslaught of water.

More than a thousand soldiers from Spain’s emergency rescue units joined regional and local emergency workers in the search for bodies and survivors. The defense minister said soldiers alone had recovered 22 bodies and rescued 110 people by Wednesday evening.

“We are looking house by house,” Ángel Martínez, an official with a military emergency unit in the town of Utiel, where at least six people died, told Spanish national radio station RNE on Thursday.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez is heading to the region to witness the destruction firsthand as the nation begins a three-day period of official mourning.

Thousands of people were left without water and electricity and hundreds were left stranded after their cars were destroyed or roads were blocked. The region remained partially isolated, with several roads closed and train lines down, including high-speed service to Madrid, which officials say will not be repaired for several days.

While Valencia bore the brunt of the storm, two other casualties were reported in the neighboring region of Castilla La Mancha. Southern Andalusia reported one death.

While the greatest human and material suffering was inflicted on dozens of municipalities near the city of Valencia, the storms unleashed their fury on huge areas of the southern and eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula.

Homes were without water as far south-west as Malaga in Andalusia, where a high-speed train derailed on Tuesday night, although none of the nearly 300 passengers were injured.

The greenhouses and fields of farmers across the southern arc of Spain, which is known as the garden of Europe for its exported produce, were also ruined by heavy rain, floods and winds. The storms spawned a freak tornado in Valencia and a hailstorm that ripped holes in cars in Andalusia.

The skies showed some mercy to the worst affected areas, stopping early Wednesday. But the heavy rain continued further north on Thursday, and Spain’s weather agency issued a red alert for several counties in Castellón, the northernmost province in the Valencia region, and an orange alert for southern Tarragona in northeastern Catalonia and the coast west of Cádiz. , in the southwest.

Spain’s Mediterranean coast is used to autumn storms that can cause flooding. But this was the strongest flash flood event in recent memory. Scientists link it to climate changewhich is also behind the increasingly high temperatures and droughts in Spain and the warming of the Mediterranean Sea.

Officials were questioned about the late flood warnings

The violence of the weather phenomenon surprised regional government officials. Spain’s national weather service said more rain fell in eight hours in the Valencian city of Chiva than in 20 months, calling the flood “extraordinary”.

However, the relative calm of the day after gave time to reflect and wonder if the authorities could have done more to save lives. Valencia’s regional government is being criticized for not sending flood warnings to people’s mobile phones until 8pm on Tuesday, when flooding had already started in some parts and long after the national weather agency had issued a red alert for heavy rains.

Andreu Salom, the mayor of the Valencian village of L’Alcudia, told national broadcaster RTVE that his town had lost at least two residents, a daughter and her elderly mother who lived together, and that police were still looking for the missing truck driver.

He also complained that he and his villagers were not warned of the disaster, which occurred late Tuesday when the Magro River burst its banks.

“I myself was on my way to check the river level because I had no information,” Salom said. “I went with the local police, but we had to turn back because a tsunami of water, mud, reeds and earth was already entering the town.”

Mari Carmen Pérez said by phone from her ruined home in Barrio de la Torre that her phone rang with the flood warning after rushing water had already forced through the front door and flooded her living room, kitchen and bathroom.

“They had no idea what was going on,” Pérez, a cleaning professional, said of the authorities. “Everything is destroyed. The people here, I’ve never seen anything like it. It was like a disaster movie.”

Valencia regional president Carlos Mazón defended his administration’s handling of the crisis, saying “all our supervisors followed standard protocol.”

Wilson reported from Barcelona, ​​Spain. Teresa Medrano contributed from Madrid.