Rescuers are searching for bodies following monstrous flash floods in Spain that claimed at least 158 lives.
Spain’s worst natural disaster this century left a trail of destruction and fears that more horrors will be uncovered from the ubiquitous layers of mud that walls of water left in their wake late on Tuesday and early Wednesday.
“Unfortunately, there are dead people inside some vehicles,” Spain’s transport minister Óscar Puente said.
The widespread damage recalled the aftermath of a hurricane or tsunami.
Cars piled on one another like fallen dominoes, uprooted trees, downed power lines and household items all mired in mud that covered streets in dozens of communities in the hardest-hit region of Valencia.
Rushing water turned narrow streets into death traps and spawned rivers that tore through homes and businesses, sweeping away cars, people and everything else in its path.
The floods demolished bridges and left roads unrecognisable.
Luís Sánchez, a welder, was one of the lucky ones when the storm turned the V-31 highway south of Valencia city into a floating graveyard strewn with hundreds of vehicles.
He said he saved several people.
“I saw bodies floating past. I called out but nothing,” Sánchez said.
“The firefighters took the elderly first, when they could get in. I am from nearby so I tried to help and rescue people. People were crying all over, they were trapped.”
Regional authorities said late on Wednesday it seemed no one was left stranded on rooftops or in cars in need of rescue after helicopters had saved some 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 Sánchez said after meeting with regional officials and emergency services in Valencia on Thursday, the first of three official days of mourning.
The floods demolished bridges and left roads unrecognisable. Source: AAP / Manuel Bruque/EPA
Scientists say storm caused by global warming
Spain’s Mediterranean coast is used to autumn storms that can cause flooding, but this was the most powerful flash flood event in recent memory.
Scientists link it to climate change, which is also behind increasingly high temperatures and droughts in Spain and the heating up of the Mediterranean Sea.
The greatest pain was concentrated in Paiporta, a community of 25,000 next to Valencia city where mayor Maribel Albalat said on Thursday that 62 people had perished.
While the most suffering was inflicted on municipalities near the city of Valencia, the storms unleashed their fury over huge swathes of the south and eastern coast of the Iberian peninsula.
A man crosses the destroyed tracks of line 1 of the Valencia metro in the flood-hit municipality of Paiporta, in the province of Valencia, Spain. Source: EPA / Manuel Bruque
Two fatalities were reported in the neighbouring Castilla La Mancha region and one in southern Andalusia.
The storms spawned a freak tornado in Valencia and a hail storm that punched holes in cars in Andalusia.
Heavy rains continued on Thursday farther north as the Spanish weather agency issued a red alert for several counties in Castellón, in the eastern Valencia region, and for Tarragona in Catalonia.
“This storm front is still with us,” the prime minister said.
“Stay home and heed the official recommendation and you will help save lives.”
More than 1000 soldiers from Spain’s emergency rescue units joined regional and local emergency workers in the search for bodies and survivors.
The soldiers had recovered 22 bodies and rescued 110 people by Wednesday night.
