Search for bodies after floods in Spain caused the death of at least 140 people

After the flood disaster that killed at least 140 people in Spain, people are trying to salvage what they can from their stranded homes, while teams are looking for bodies in stranded vehicles and buildings.

Spain’s worst natural disaster this century has left a trail of destruction, with fears late on Tuesday and early Wednesday that more horrors would emerge from layers of mud left behind by the walls of water.

An unknown number of people remain missing.

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

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

Cars piled up like toppled dominoes, uprooted trees, downed power lines and household items stuck in mud in dozens of communities in the hard-hit region of Valencia, where at least 92 people died.

Rushing water turned narrow streets into death traps and created rivers that tore apart homes and businesses, sweeping away cars, people and everything else in their path. The flood destroyed bridges and made roads unrecognizable.

Welder Luis Sanchez was one of the lucky ones when the storm turned the V-31 highway south of the city of Valencia into a floating graveyard filled with hundreds of vehicles. He said he saved a few people.

“I have seen bodies floating in the past. I called out but nothing happened,” Mr. Sanchez said.

“When the firefighters were able to get in, they took the elderly in first. I’m nearby so I tried to help people and save them. “People were crying everywhere, they were trapped.”

Regional officials said late Wednesday that no one was trapped on rooftops or in vehicles that needed to be rescued after helicopters rescued about 70 people.

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

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 attribute this situation to climate change, which is behind increasing temperatures, droughts and the warming of the Mediterranean in Spain.

The greatest suffering was concentrated in Paiporta, a city of 25,000 people near the city of Valencia, where mayor Maribel Albalat said 62 people had died.

“(Paiporta) never experiences flooding, we never have that kind of problem. We also found a lot of elderly people in the city centre,” Mr Albalat told national broadcaster RTVE.

“There were also a lot of people coming to get their cars out of their garages… it was a real trap.”

While the worst pain was inflicted on municipalities near the city of Valencia, the storms unleashed their fury on large areas along the southern and eastern coasts of the Iberian peninsula.

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

Castilla La Mancha regional president Emilion García-Page said that at least one Guardia Civil police officer was among the missing persons in the town of Letur.

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

Greenhouses and farms in the south of Spain, known as the garden of Europe for exported products, were also damaged by heavy rains and floods. The storms caused a devastating tornado in Valencia and a hailstorm in Andalusia that left holes in cars.

Heavy rains continued in the north on Thursday, with the Spanish weather agency issuing a red alert for several counties in Castellon in the eastern Valencia region and Tarragona in Catalonia. An orange alert has been issued for Southwest Cadiz.

“This storm front is still with us,” the Prime Minister said. “Stay at home and heed official advice and you will help save lives.”

More than 1,000 soldiers from Spain’s emergency rescue units joined regional and local emergency workers to search for bodies and survivors. Soldiers recovered 22 bodies and rescued 110 people on Wednesday night.

“We are searching house to house,” Angel Martinez with the military emergency unit told Spain’s national radio broadcaster RNE from the town of Utiel, where at least six people died.

About 150,000 people in Valencia were without electricity on Wednesday, but roughly half had it restored by Thursday, Spanish news agency EFE reported.

An unknown number of people did not have running water and relied on whatever bottled water they could find.

The area remained partially isolated with many roads cut and train lines disrupted, including a high-speed service to Madrid that authorities said would not be repaired for two to three weeks.

The severe weather event took regional government officials by surprise. Spain’s national meteorological service described the flood as “extraordinary”, stating that more rain fell in the Valencian town of Chiva in eight hours than in the previous 20 months.