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

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) – Flash floods in eastern 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 on car roofs.

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 of his town 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.

Searchers have been working to find survivors and victims, but countless others are still missing. Spain’s government said it would declare three days of mourning from Thursday for the victims of devastating flash floods.

“Those who are looking for their loved ones, all of Spain feels your pain,” Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said in a televised speech. “Our priority is to help you. We are committing all necessary resources so that we can recover from this tragedy.”

More than 1,600 soldiers from Spain’s emergency response units were deployed to the devastated areas, and rescuers from across the country arrived in the affected areas. Spain’s central government has established a crisis committee to help coordinate rescue efforts.

Older people were the most vulnerable. RTVE broadcast footage of seniors in chairs and wheelchairs with water up to their knees in a nursing home, and 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, documenting 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.

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 as other regions have not yet reported casualties and searches continue in difficult-to-access areas.

“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.”

Mayor Sergio Marín Sánchez said five people were missing in the village of Letur in the neighboring Castilla-La Mancha region.

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. The long-term drought also made it difficult for the soil to absorb large amounts of water.

The storms produced a freak hailstorm that blew holes in car windows and greenhouses, as well as a rarely seen tornado.

Transport also suffered. A high-speed train with almost 300 people on board derailed near Malaga, although railway authorities say no one was injured. The high-speed rail link between Valencia and Madrid has been interrupted, as have suburban lines. About 1,500 people spent the night at Valencia airport before the flight.

Valencia region president Carlos Mazón urged people to stay at home as road travel is already difficult due to fallen trees and wrecked vehicles. Mazón said rescue efforts were hampered by downed power lines, which left areas without power and telephone lines jammed with calls. He said 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 by using the Copernicus satellite geomonitoring system “to help coordinate the activities of rescue teams.”

She said the bloc could trigger a civil protection mechanism offering combined assistance from the other 26 member states if Spain needed help.

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

When the water 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.

Relatives of the missing people flood social media and local television and radio with appeals to find their loved ones.

Leonardo Enrique told RTVE that his family spent hours searching for his son, 40-year-old Leonardo Enrique Rivera, who was driving a delivery van when it started raining. His son sent a message that his van had been flooded and that he had been hit by another vehicle while he was near Ribarroja, an industrial town that is one of the hardest hit, Enrique said.

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

Valencia, located south of Barcelona on the Mediterranean coast, is a tourist destination known for its beaches, citrus orchards and the Spanish rice dish paella.

Like other areas of Spain, Valencia has 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.

The rain in Valencia stopped late Wednesday morning as the storm headed north, prompting Barcelona region authorities to issue weather alerts.

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

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