At least 64 people have died in devastating floods in eastern Spain, officials say

BARCELONA, Spain. — At least 64 people have died in eastern Spain after flash floods washed away cars, turned village streets into rivers and disrupted railway lines and motorways in the worst natural disaster to hit the European country in recent years.

Emergency services in the eastern region of Valencia confirmed Wednesday’s death toll at 62. Two more victims were reported in the neighboring region of Castile-La Mancha.

Tuesday’s rain caused flooding across a wide swath of southern and eastern Spain, stretching from Malaga to Valencia. The mud-colored flood sent vehicles overturning through the streets at high speeds, while pieces of wood swirled in the water mixed with household items. Police and emergency services used helicopters to lift people from their homes and rubber boats to reach drivers stuck on their roofs.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said dozens of cities had been flooded and warned that the danger was not yet over.

“For those who are looking for their loved ones, all of Spain feels your pain,” Sanchez said in a televised address. “Our priority is to help you. We are deploying all necessary resources so that we can recover from this tragedy.”

Authorities reported several missing on Tuesday night, but the next morning there was a shocking report of dozens of dead bodies being found.

“Yesterday was the worst day of my life,” Ricardo Gabaldón, mayor of Utiel in Valencia, told national broadcaster RTVE. According to him, several people are still missing in his city.

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

More than 1,000 soldiers from Spain’s emergency response units were sent to the devastated areas. Rescue services were also rushing east from other parts of Spain. Spain’s central government has set up a crisis committee to coordinate rescue efforts.

One elderly couple was rescued from the top floor of the house by a military unit with the help of a bulldozer, and they were accompanied by three soldiers on a huge shovel.

Television reports showed videos taken by panicked residents of water flooding the first floors of apartment buildings, streams bursting their banks and bridges collapsing.

Spain’s National Meteorological Service called the rainfall “extraordinary”, with 491 liters per square meter (108 gallons per 32.3 square feet) accumulated in eight hours in the Valencian district of Chiva.

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

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

In the village of Letur in the neighboring Castilla-La Mancha region, Mayor Sergio Marin Sánchez said six people were missing.

Spain is still recovering from a severe drought and continues to record record high temperatures in recent years. Scientists say the increase in extreme weather episodes is likely due to climate change.

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

The storms produced ferocious hail that blew holes in car windows and greenhouses, as well as tornadoes that are rarely seen.

Transport was also affected. A high-speed train with nearly 300 people on board derailed near Malaga, although railway authorities said no one was injured. The high-speed train service between the city of Valencia and Madrid was suspended, as were suburban lines.

The regional president of Valencia, Carlos Mason, urged people to stay at home as road travel was already difficult due to fallen trees and wrecked cars. Rescue efforts were hampered by downed power lines, leaving areas without power and phone lines jammed with calls, Mazon said. According to him, emergency services of the region handled about 30,000 calls.

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

The European Union leader said the bloc was ready to activate a civil protection mechanism that would offer joint assistance to the other 26 member states if Spain asked for help.

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

As the water receded, thick layers of mud mixed with trash made the streets unrecognizable.

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

Outside the Viena bar, people came out to see what could be salvaged. Cars were piled up and the streets were filled with piles of waterlogged branches.

Relatives of the missing filled social networks and local radio stations with appeals to find their relatives.

Leonardo Enrique told RTVE that his family spent hours looking for his son, 40-year-old Leonardo Enrique Rivera, who was driving the van when the rain started. His son sent word that his van had flooded and that he had been hit by another car while he was near Ribarroch, an industrial town that is one of the hardest hit, Enrique said.

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

Like some other areas of Spain, Valencia has gorges and small riverbeds that are dry for most of the year but quickly fill with water when it rains. Many of them pass through populated areas.

Rain eased in Valencia by late Wednesday morning as the storm moved north, prompting authorities in the Barcelona region to issue weather warnings.

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