UTIEL, Spain (AP) 鈥 Flash floods in Spain turned village streets into rivers, ruined homes, disrupted transportation and killed at least 95 people in the worst natural disaster to hit the European nation in recent memory.
Rainstorms that started Tuesday and continued Wednesday caused flooding across southern and eastern Spain, stretching from Malaga to Valencia. Muddy torrents 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.
鈥淵esterday was the worst day of my life,鈥 Ricardo Gabald贸n, the mayor of Utiel, a town in Valencia, told national broadcaster RTVE on Wednesday. He said six residents perished and more are missing.
鈥淲e were trapped like rats. Cars and trash containers were flowing down the streets. The water was rising to 3 meters (9.8 feet),鈥 he said.
Spain鈥檚 government declared three days of mourning starting Thursday.
鈥淔or those who are looking for their loved ones, all of Spain feels your pain,鈥 Prime Minister Pedro S谩nchez said in a televised address.
Rescue personnel and more than 1,100 soldiers from Spain鈥檚 emergency response units were deployed to affected areas. Spain鈥檚 central government set up a crisis committee to coordinate rescue efforts.
Javier Berenguer, 63, escaped 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.
鈥淚 had to get out of a window as best I could because the water was already coming up to my shoulders. I took refuge on the first floor with the neighbors and I stayed there all night,鈥 Berenguer told The Associated Press. 鈥淚t has taken everything. I have to throw everything out of the bakery, the freezers, ovens, everything.鈥
Mar铆a Carmen Mart铆nez, another Utiel resident, witnessed a harrowing rescue.
鈥淚t was horrible, horrible. There was a man there clinging to a fence who was falling and calling people for help,鈥 she said. 鈥淭hey couldn鈥檛 help him until the helicopters came and took him away.鈥
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.
鈥淲e don鈥檛 know what happened, but in 10 minutes the village was overflowing with water,鈥 Albalat said.
Spain鈥檚 national weather service said it rained more in eight hours in Valencia than it had in the preceding 20 months,
Located south of Barcelona on the Mediterranean coast, 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 unrecognizable.
鈥淭he neighborhood is destroyed, all the cars are on top of each other, it鈥檚 literally smashed up,鈥 Christian Viena, a bar owner in the Valencian village of Barrio de la Torre, said by phone. 鈥淓verything is a total wreck, everything is ready to be thrown away. The mud is almost 30 centimeters (11 inches) deep.鈥
Outside Viena鈥檚 bar, people were venturing out to see what they could salvage. Cars were piled up and the streets were filled with clumps of water-logged branches.
Spain has experienced in recent years. Nothing, however, compared to the devastation over the last two days, which recalls floods in 2021 in which 230 people were killed.
The death toll will likely rise with other regions yet to report victims and search efforts continuing in hard-to-reach places.
鈥淲e are facing a very difficult situation,鈥 minister of territory policies 脕ngel V铆ctor Torres said. 鈥淭he fact that we can鈥檛 give a number of the missing persons indicates the magnitude of the tragedy.鈥
Spain is still recovering from a severe drought and has registered record in recent years. Scientists say increased episodes of extreme weather are . 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.
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. 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 highspeed service to the capital due to the damage done to the line. Bus and commuter rail lines were likewise interrupted. Many flights were cancelled Tuesday night, stranding some 1,500 people overnight at Valencia's airport. Flights resumed Wednesday.
and players from Barcelona and Madrid held a moment of silence for victims of the flood before training Wednesday.
Valencian regional President Carlos Maz贸n 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, Maz贸n said.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told reporters in Brussels that the EU will 鈥渉elp coordinate the rescue teams鈥 using its Copernicus geo-monitoring satellite system.
Some residents appealed 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.
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Wilson reported from Barcelona and Medrano from Madrid. AP journalist Lorne Cook in Brussels contributed to this report.
