At least 72 people have died in devastating flash floods in eastern Spain

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) – Flash floods in Spain have swept away cars, turned rural streets into rivers, damaged railways and highways and killed at least 72 people in the worst natural disaster to recently hit the European nation.

Rain storms that started on Tuesday and continued on Wednesday caused flooding across a large area of ​​southern and eastern Spain, stretching from Malaga to Valencia. Muddy torrents threw vehicles onto the streets at high speed, and pieces of wood swirled in the water next to household items. Police and emergency services used helicopters to pull people from their homes and rubber boats to reach drivers trapped in their cars.

Emergency services in the eastern region of Valencia confirmed the death of 70 people on Wednesday. Another two deaths were reported in the neighboring Castilla-La Mancha region.

“Yesterday was the worst day of my life,” Ricardo Gabaldón, mayor of Utiel, a town in Valencia, told national broadcaster RTVE on Wednesday. He said six residents were killed and the fate of several others remained unknown.

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

The Spanish government announced three days of mourning from Thursday.

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

Emergency personnel and more than 1,100 soldiers from Spanish emergency response units were dispatched to the affected areas. Spain’s central government has established a crisis committee to coordinate rescue efforts.

Older people were the most vulnerable. RTVE broadcast footage of seniors in a nursing home in chairs and wheelchairs with water up to their knees, and of a military unit rescuing an elderly couple from the top floor of their home in a bulldozer bucket.

Television reports showed videos shot by panicked residents showing water flooding the ground floors of apartment buildings, streams overflowing their banks and bridges sagging. People held their breath, pointing at what they thought might be bodies bobbing in the rushing brown flood.

The Spanish weather service called the rainfall “extraordinary” in parts of Valencia.

Located south of Barcelona on the Mediterranean coast, Valencia is a tourist destination known for its beaches, citrus orchards and the origins of paella. The region contains gorges and small riverbeds that are completely dry most of the year, but when it rains they quickly fill with water. Many of them pass through populated areas.

Spain has experienced similar autumn storms in recent years. But nothing compared to the flood-like devastation that has occurred over the past two days in Germany and Belgium in 2021, in which 230 people died.

The death toll is likely to rise and other regions have not yet reported casualties and searches 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 people indicates the scale of the tragedy.”

Spain is still recovering from a severe drought and has achieved record results high temperatures in recent years. Scientists say extreme weather is becoming more common possibly linked to climate change. Long-term drought makes it difficult for the soil to absorb large amounts of water.

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

Transport also suffered. A high-speed train with almost 300 people on board derailed near Malaga, although railway authorities say no one was injured. High-speed rail service between Valencia and Madrid has been interrupted, with the transport ministry saying it could take up to four days to restore high-speed services to the capital due to the damage caused to the line. Bus lines and suburban rail were also interrupted. Many flights were canceled on Tuesday evening, leaving around 1,500 people stranded at Valencia airport overnight. Flights resumed on Wednesday.

Valencia regional president Carlos Mazón urged people to stay at home, saying road travel was difficult due to fallen trees and wrecked vehicles. Mazón said rescue efforts were hampered by downed power lines and power outages, and regional emergency services responded to about 30,000 calls.

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

“Europe is ready to help,” Von der Leyen said.

As the floods receded, thick layers of mud mixed with garbage made the streets unrecognizable.

“The area is destroyed, all the cars are lying on top of each other, it’s literally smashed,” Christian Viena, a bar owner in the Valencian village of Barrio de la Torre, said by phone. “Everything is a total wreck, everything needs to be thrown away. The mud is almost 30 centimeters (11 inches) deep.

Outside Viena’s bar, people came out to see what could be saved. Cars were piled high and the streets were filled with clumps of wet branches.

Some residents appealed for information about missing loved ones via social media, television and radio broadcasts.

Leonardo Enrique told RTVE that his family spent hours searching for his 40-year-old son, Leonardo Enrique Rivera, who was driving a delivery truck when it began to rain. His son sent a message that his van had been flooded and that he had been hit by another vehicle near Ribarroja, the industrial town that suffered the most damage, Enrique said.

Football matches for Valencia and neighboring club Levante have been postponed.

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Medrano reported from Madrid. Associated Press journalist Lorne Cook in Brussels contributed.

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