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Flash floods that ravaged eastern Spain this week have left at least 158 people dead, Spanish news agency EFE reported on Thursday.
Tens of thousands of homes in the region are without electricity and roads are blocked by vehicles and mud left by torrents of water. Residents have begun questioning whether authorities could have done more to limit the damage.
Crews searched for bodies in stranded cars and sodden buildings Thursday as people tried to salvage what they could from their ruined homes following devastating flash floods in Spain that claimed at least 158 lives.
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Spain’s worst natural disaster this century left a trail of destruction and fears that more horrors will be uncovered from the layers of mud that walls of water left in their wake late Tuesday and early Wednesday.
An unknown number of people are still missing.
“Unfortunately, there are dead people inside some vehicles,” said Spain’s Transport Minister Óscar Puente in reference to hundreds of cars and trucks stranded on roads stained brown with mud.
The aftermath looked like the damage left by a strong hurricane or tsunami.
Cars piled on one another like broken toys, uprooted trees, downed power lines and household items all mired in a layer of mud covered the streets of Barrio de la Torre, a suburb of Valencia, just one of dozens of localities in the hard-hit region of Valencia, where 92 people died between late Tuesday and Wednesday morning.
Walls of rushing water turned narrow streets into death traps and spawned rivers that ripped into the ground floors of homes and swept away cars, people and anything else in its path. The floods knocked down bridges and left roads unrecognisable.
“The neighbourhood is destroyed, all the cars are on top of each other, it’s literally smashed up,” said Christian Viena, the owner of a wrecked bar in Barrio de la Torre.
Regional authorities said late Wednesday it seemed no one was left stranded on rooftops or in cars in need of rescue after helicopters had saved some 70 people. But ground crews and citizens continued to inspect vehicles and homes that were damaged by the onslaught of water.
“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 days of official mourning in the European country.
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.
