Search for bodies after floods in Spain claim at least 155 lives

Crews searched for bodies in stranded cars and buildings as people tried to salvage what they could from their destroyed homes after floods in Spain killed at least 155 people.

Spain’s worst natural disaster this century has left a trail of destruction and fears that more horrors will be found in the layers of mud that walls of water left behind late Tuesday and early Wednesday.

An unknown number of people are still missing.

“Unfortunately, there are dead people in some vehicles,” Spanish Transport Minister Oscar Puente said.

The widespread damage was reminiscent of the aftermath of a hurricane or tsunami.

Cars piled on top of each other like toppling dominoes, uprooted trees, downed power lines and household items all bogged down in the mud that blanketed streets in dozens of communities in the hardest-hit region of Valencia, where at least 92 people were killed.

The rushing water turned narrow streets into death traps and created rivers that rushed through homes and businesses, sweeping away cars, people and everything else in their path. Floods destroyed bridges and made roads unrecognizable.

Luis Sanchez, a welder, was one of the lucky ones when the hurricane turned the V-31 highway south of Valencia into a floating graveyard littered with hundreds of cars. He said he saved several people.

“I saw bodies floating by. I screamed, but nothing,” Mr. Sanchez said.

“Firefighters were the first to remove the elderly when they were able to enter. I come from a neighboring city, so I tried to help and save people. People were crying everywhere, they were trapped.”

Regional authorities said late Wednesday that it appeared no one was left stranded on rooftops or in cars needing rescue after helicopters rescued about 70 people.

“Our priority is to find the victims and the missing so we can help end the suffering of their families,” Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said after meeting with regional officials and emergency services in Valencia on Thursday, the first of three official days mourning .

Spain’s Mediterranean coast is accustomed to autumn storms that can cause flooding, but this was the worst flash flooding in recent memory.

Scientists link this to climate change, which is also responsible for increasingly high temperatures and droughts in Spain, as well as a warming Mediterranean Sea.

The greatest pain was concentrated in Paiport, a village of 25,000 near the city of Valencia, where Mayor Maribel Albalat said 62 people had died.

“We never have floods in Pyport, we never have problems like this. And we found a lot of elderly people in the city center,” Mr Albalat told national broadcaster RTVE.

“There were also a lot of people who came to pick up their cars from the garages… it was a real trap.”

Although municipalities near the city of Valencia were hit hardest, the storms unleashed their fury across vast areas of the southern and eastern coasts of the Iberian Peninsula.

Two deaths were reported in the neighboring region of Castilla-La Mancha and one in southern Andalusia.

Castilla-La Mancha regional president Emilion García-Page said at least one Guardia civilian police officer was among several missing in the city of Letour.

Houses were left without water as far southwest as Malaga in Andalusia, where a high-speed train derailed on Tuesday evening although none of the nearly 300 passengers were injured.

Greenhouses and farms in southern Spain, known as the gardens of Europe because of the produce they export, were also destroyed by heavy rains and floods. The storms produced a freak tornado in Valencia and a hail storm that tore through cars in Andalusia.

Heavy rain continued further north on Thursday as the Spanish weather agency issued a red alert for several districts of Castellon, the eastern region of Valencia and Tarragona in Catalonia. An orange alert has been declared for the southwest of Cadiz.

“This storm front is still with us,” the prime minister said. “Stay at home and listen to official advice and you will help save lives.”

More than 1,000 Spanish rescue service soldiers joined regional and local rescue workers in the search for bodies and survivors. By Wednesday evening, soldiers had recovered 22 bodies and rescued 110 people.

“We are searching house by house,” Angel Martinez of the military emergency service of Spanish national radio station RNE told the town of Utiel, where at least six people were killed.

About 150,000 people in Valencia were left without electricity on Wednesday, but by Thursday about half had power, Spanish news agency EFE reported.

An unknown number had no running water and relied on whatever bottled water they could find.

The region remained partially isolated, with several roads cut off and rail lines disrupted, including a high-speed link to Madrid that officials said would not be repaired for two to three weeks.

The abnormal weather phenomenon surprised representatives of regional authorities.

Spain’s National Meteorological Service said more rain fell in eight hours in the Valencian town of Chiva than in the previous 20 months, calling the flooding “extraordinary.”