Flash floods Valencia, Spain: At least 95 people die in devastating floods

BARCELONA, Spain. — Flash floods in Spain turned village streets into rivers, destroyed homes, disrupted transport and killed at least 95 people in the worst natural disaster to hit the European country in recent history.

Rain showers that started on Tuesday and continued on Wednesday caused flooding across southern and eastern Spain, stretching from Malaga to Valencia. Muddy flows sent vehicles tumbling through the streets at high speed, while debris and household items swirled into the water. Police and rescue services used helicopters to lift people from their homes and rubber boats to reach drivers stranded on cars.

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

“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 were killed and more were missing.

“We were trapped like rats. Cars and garbage containers flooded the streets. The water rose to 3 meters (9.8 feet),” he said.

The Spanish government has declared three days of mourning from Thursday.

“To those who are looking for their loved ones, all of Spain feels your pain,” Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said in a televised address.

Rescue personnel and more than 1,100 soldiers from Spain’s emergency response units were sent to the affected areas. Spain’s central government has set up a crisis committee to coordinate rescue efforts.

Javier Berenguer, 63, escaped from his bakery in Utiel when crushing water threatened to overwhelm him. He said it rose to 2.5 meters (8.2 feet) inside his business, and he fears his livelihood has been destroyed.

“I had to get out of a window as best I could because the water was already up to my shoulders. I took refuge on the first floor with the neighbors and stayed there all night,” Berenguer told The Associated Press. “It took everything. I have to throw everything out of the bakery, the freezers, ovens, everything.”

María Carmen Martínez, another Utiel resident, witnessed a harrowing rescue operation.

“It was terrible, terrible. There was a man there clinging to a fence, falling and calling people for help,” she said. “They couldn’t help him until the helicopters came and took him away.”

One town in Valencia, Paiporta, suffered exceptional losses. Mayor Maribel Albalat told RTVE that more than 30 people have died in the city of about 25,000 residents. Among them were six residents of a senior home. News media broadcast images of seniors in chairs and wheelchairs at a nursing home in Paiporta, some screaming in apparent fear as water rose over their knees.

“We don’t know what happened, but within ten minutes the village was flooded with water,” Albalat said.

Spain’s national weather service said it rained more in Valencia in eight hours than in the previous 20 months, calling the deluge “extraordinary.”

Located south of Barcelona on the Mediterranean Sea, Valencia is a tourist destination known for its beaches, citrus groves and as the origin of the rice dish, paella. The region has gorges and small riverbeds that are completely dry for much of the year, but quickly fill with water when it rains. Many of them pass through populated areas.

As the flooding subsided, thick layers of mud mixed with rubbish made some streets unrecognizable.

“The neighborhood is destroyed, all the cars are stacked on top of each other, it is literally destroyed,” Christian Viena, a cafe owner in the Valencian village of Barrio de la Torre, said by telephone. “Everything is a total wreck, everything is ready to be thrown away. The mud is almost a foot deep.”

Outside Vienna’s bar, people ventured out to see what they could salvage. Cars were piled up and the streets were filled with clumps of water-soaked branches.

Spain has experienced similar autumn storms in recent years. Nothing compared to the devastation of the past two days, reminiscent of the 2021 floods in Germany and Belgium that killed 230 people.

The death toll is likely to rise as other regions are yet to report casualties and search efforts continue in hard-to-reach places.

“We are facing a very difficult situation,” said Minister of Territorial Policy Ángel Víctor Torres. “The fact that we cannot provide the number of missing persons indicates the scale of the tragedy.”

Spain is still recovering from a severe drought and has recorded 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 large amounts of water.

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

Transport was also affected. A high-speed train with almost 300 people on board derailed near Malaga, although rail authorities said no one was injured. The high-speed train service between the city of Valencia and Madrid was disrupted and the Transport Ministry said it could take up to four days to restore high-speed service to the capital due to the damage to the line. Bus and commuter rail lines were also disrupted. Many flights were canceled on Tuesday evening, leaving around 1,500 people stranded at Valencia airport overnight. Flights resumed on Wednesday.

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

Valencian regional president Carlos Mazón called on people to stay at home and said road travel was difficult due to fallen trees and destroyed 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.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told reporters in Brussels that the EU “will help coordinate the rescue teams” using its Copernicus satellite geomonitoring system.

Some residents took to social media, television and radio broadcasts to call for news of their missing loved ones.

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

Wilson reported from Barcelona and Medrano from Madrid. Lorne Cook in Brussels contributed.