BARCELONA, Spain (AP) – The worst natural disaster to hit a European country in recent days has swept away cars, turned village streets into rivers, disrupted railways and highways and destroyed at least 63 people in eastern Spain. A person died.
Emergency services in eastern Valencia confirmed 62 deaths on Wednesday. The central government office of the Castilla-La Mancha region added that an 88-year-old woman was found dead in the city of Cuenca.
Tuesday’s storms caused flooding across large swaths of southern and eastern Spain, from Malaga to Valencia. Mud-colored floodwaters overturned roads at high speed, sending pieces of wood swirling in the water along with household belongings. Police and rescue teams used helicopters to pull people from their homes and rubber boats to rescue drivers who were trapped on the roof of their cars.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said dozens of towns were flooded and warned the danger was not over.
“To those who are looking for their loved ones, all of Spain feels your pain,” Sanchez said in a televised address. “Our priority is to help you. We are devoting all the resources necessary to recover from this tragedy.”
Authorities reported several people missing late Tuesday, but the next morning came the shocking announcement that dozens of bodies had been found.
“Yesterday was the worst day of my life,” Ricardo Gabaldon, the mayor of the Valencian town of Utiel, told state broadcaster RTVE. He said several people were still missing in his town.
“We were trapped like rats. Cars and trash cans were floating down the street. The water level rose up to 3 meters,” he said.
More than 1,000 soldiers from Spain’s emergency response forces were sent to the affected areas. Rescue teams from other parts of Spain also rushed east. Spain’s central government has set up a crisis committee to help coordinate rescue efforts.
An elderly couple was rescued from the upper floor of their home by military forces using a bulldozer, accompanied by three soldiers with a huge shovel.
Television reports showed videos taken by panicked residents showing water flooding ground floor apartments, rivers bursting their banks and bridges collapsing.
Similar autumn storms have occurred in Spain in recent years. But nothing compared to the devastation of the past two days reminds us of the 2021 floods in Germany and Belgium that killed 230 people.
No casualties have yet been reported in other areas, and the death toll could rise further as search operations continue in hard-to-reach areas.
In the neighboring village of Retour in the Castile-La Mancha region, village mayor Sergio Marin Sánchez announced that six people were missing.
Spain is still recovering from a severe drought and has continued to experience record high temperatures in recent years. Scientists say the increase in extreme weather events is likely linked to climate change.
The storm produced unusual hailstorms, punched holes in car windows and greenhouses, and spawned a rarely seen tornado.
Transportation was also affected. A high-speed train carrying nearly 300 people derailed near Malaga, but railway authorities said no one was injured. High-speed rail service between the city of Valencia and Madrid was suspended, as were commuter routes.
Valencian regional president Carlos Mazon urged people to stay at home, saying fallen trees and damaged vehicles were already making travel difficult on the roads.
When the water fell, a thick layer of mud mixed with trash made the road unrecognizable.
“The neighborhood is being destroyed, all the cars are on top of each other, it’s literally being destroyed,” Cristian Vienna, who runs a bar in Valencia’s Barrio de la Torre village, said by phone. “Everything is completely destroyed and everything is ready to be thrown away. The mud is almost 30 centimeters deep.”
Outside the bar in Vienna, people were out looking to see what they could salvage. Cars piled up and roads were covered with chunks of water-soaked branches.
Relatives of the missing people have appealed to social media and local TV and radio stations to search for their loved ones.
Leonardo Enrique told RTVE that his family had been searching for hours for his son, Leonardo Enrique Rivera, 40, who was driving a delivery van when it started raining. Enrique said his son sent a message saying his van was flooded and hit by another car while he was near Ribaroja, one of the worst-hit industrial cities.
Located on the Mediterranean coast south of Barcelona, Valencia is a tourist destination known for its beaches, citrus groves, and the home of Spain’s paella rice dish.
Like the rest of Spain, Valencia has valleys and small riverbeds that remain completely dry for most of the year, but quickly flood when it rains. Many of them pass through populated areas.
The rain had stopped in Valencia by late Wednesday morning, prompting authorities in the Barcelona region to issue a weather warning as the storm headed north.
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Associated Press writer Teresa Medrano in Madrid contributed to this report.
