Latest floods in Spain: tragedy exposes 'criminal negligence'; police fear more bodies may remain hidden

By means of Siobhan RobbinsEurope correspondent

From filthy, mud-caked bags, Isabel picked the only possessions she has left in the world.

Dirty clothes and broken furniture were among the remains left behind by the flood.

She grabbed some nail polish.

“What a disaster,” she said.

The river near her home filled with water during Tuesday’s flash flood until it crashed through the front door and burst through the wall.

The home of three generations of her family didn’t stand a chance.

“I didn’t have time to pack anything, not even a backpack with a laptop, clothes, nothing,” she said.

Her brother Angel showed us the wreck.

The lights are gone, as are the windows and some walls.

The loss is monumental.

He said the water reached the ceiling and the level kept rising.

“There was so much water and it came with such force, it was terrifying. The sound it made was unbelievable,” Angel told me.

The current was so wild that it destroyed the bridge next to it.

The family only made it out alive because they took themselves to higher ground when the water began to rise; they did not wait for the official warning.

In the living room, Angel’s sister Amparo tried to find everything that could be saved.

The flood took the house, but also the memories; valuable memories of a father and mother who are no longer there.

“There are things from my mother,” she said through tears after looking through broken dishes.

“I didn’t take them back to my house where I live and I thought they were all lost, but at least some of them are still there.”

In each room, friends and volunteers tried to clean up the mess, but the sense of loss and sadness is enormous.

Isabel and her family are now homeless and have no idea how long.

“I came to the house with my dogs and they wanted to come in, but we can’t go home,” she said.

This is a story of loss, a snapshot of grief in a country where millions are grieving.