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Search for missing continues, as death toll increases after flash floods in Spain

READ OUR LATEST UPDATE HERE: Death toll now over 200 in Valencia region alone, as residents appeal for help: ‘There are people living with corpses at home’

Report below published on 31 October at 9.20am.

The Spanish government has declared three days of mourning starting on Thursday, after flash floods in eastern and southern Spain, particularly in the Valencia region, turned village streets into rivers, ruined homes, disrupted transportation and killed at least 95 people in the worst natural disaster to hit the country in recent memory. The search and rescue operation for many still missing continues.

‘For those who are looking for their loved ones, all of Spain feels your pain,’ Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said in a televised address on Wednesday. He plans to visit Valencia later on Thursday.

Rescue personnel and more than 1,100 soldiers from Spain’s emergency response units (UME) were deployed to affected areas. Spain’s central government has set up a crisis committee to coordinate rescue efforts. ALSO READ: Death toll nears 100 as torrential rains flood eastern Spain.

Rainstorms that started Tuesday and continued on Wednesday caused flooding across southern and eastern Spain, stretching from Malaga to Valencia. Muddy torrents tumbled vehicles down streets at high speeds while debris and household items swirled in the water. Police and rescue services used helicopters to lift people from their homes and rubber boats to reach drivers stranded atop cars.

Emergency services in the eastern region of Valencia confirmed a death toll of 92 people on Wednesday. Another two casualties were reported in the neighboring Castilla-La Mancha region, while southern Andalusia reported one death.

The death toll will likely rise with other provinces and regions yet to report victims and search efforts continuing in hard-to-reach places.

‘We are facing a very difficult situation,’ Spain’s minister of territory policies Ángel Víctor Torres said. ‘The fact that we can’t give a number of the missing persons indicates the magnitude of the tragedy.’

‘Yesterday was the worst day of my life,’ Ricardo Gabaldón, the mayor of Utiel, a town in Valencia, told national broadcaster RTVE on Wednesday. He said six residents perished and more are missing.

‘We were trapped like rats. Cars and trash containers were flowing down the streets. The water was rising to 3 metres,’ he said.

One Valencia town, Paiporta, suffered exceptional loss. Mayor Maribel Albalat told RTVE that over 30 people died in the town of some 25,000 people. Those included six residents of a senior residence. News media broadcast footage of seniors in chairs and wheelchairs at a Paiporta nursing home, some crying out in apparent terror as the water rose over their knees.

‘We don’t know what happened, but in 10 minutes the village was overflowing with water,’ Albalat said.

Some residents were appealing for news of their missing loved ones via social media, television and radio broadcasts.

Leonardo Enrique told RTVE that his family searched for hours for his 40-year-old son, Leonardo Enrique Rivera, who was driving a delivery van when the rain began. His son sent a message saying his van was flooding and that he had been hit by another vehicle near Ribarroja, an industrial town that is among the worst affected, Enrique said.

Spain’s national weather service AEMET said it rained more in eight hours in Valencia than it had in the preceding 20 months, calling the deluge ‘extraordinary’.

The region of Valencia is a tourist destination known for its beaches, citrus orchards, and as the origin of the rice dish, paella. The region has gorges and small riverbeds that spend much of the year completely dry but quickly fill with water when it rains. Many of them pass through populated areas. As the floods receded, thick layers of mud mixed with refuse made some streets unrecognisable.

Transport was also affected. A high-speed train with nearly 300 people on board derailed near Malaga, although rail authorities said no one was hurt. The high-speed train service between Valencia city and Madrid was interrupted, and the transport ministry said it could take up to four days to restore high-speed service to the capital due to the damage done to the line. Bus and commuter rail lines were likewise interrupted. Many flights were cancelled on Tuesday night, stranding some 1,500 people overnight at Valencia’s airport. Flights resumed on Wednesday.

Football matches involving Valencia and Levante were cancelled and players from Barcelona and Madrid held a moment of silence for victims of the flood before training Wednesday.

Valencian regional president Carlos Mazón urged people to stay at home, saying travel by road was difficult due to fallen trees and wrecked vehicles. Rescue efforts were hampered by downed power lines and power outages, and the regional emergency service responded to some 30,000 calls, Mazón said. Spanish media has reported that red-alert warnings from the Valencia government were late in being sent out on Tuesday evening, after the floods were already doing major damage.

Spain has experienced similar autumn storms in recent years. Nothing, however, compared to the devastation over the last two days, which recalls floods in Germany and Belgium in 2021 in which 230 people were killed.

Spain is still recovering from a severe drought and has registered record high temperatures in recent years. Scientists say increased episodes of extreme weather are likely linked to climate change. The prolonged drought makes it more difficult for the land to absorb high volumes of water.

The storms also unleashed a rare tornado and a freak hailstorm that punched holes in car windows and greenhouses.

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