dramatic At least 140 people killed in floods in Spain The deaths occurred between Tuesday night and Wednesday, and the death toll was expected to rise as search and rescue operations continued Thursday. Flash floods hit the eastern region of Valencia, turning roads into raging rivers without warning and murky waters tossing parked cars like tin cans, the worst natural disaster to hit a European nation in 100 years. .
In some areas, rainfall exceeded normal levels in just eight hours. The death toll rose by 45 on Thursday to at least 140, state news agency EFE said, without giving further details. The majority of the dead were in Valencia.
There have also been some dramatic rescues, including a couple stranded on the second floor of a house who were scooped to safety by a front-end loader. Dennis Hlavati was trapped inside a gas station overnight and braved the muddy onslaught.
“I’m smiling so I don’t cry,” he said as he left the evacuation site. “It was a living hell.”
The Valencia suburb of Barrio de la Torre looked like it had been hit by a hurricane on Thursday. Cars were piled up on muddy roads, uprooted trees and downed power lines were woven into the chaos. Most of the deaths confirmed as of Thursday morning were in the town.
“The area is destroyed, all the cars are on top of each other, it’s literally destroyed,” Christian Vienna, a local bar owner, told The Associated Press.
The rain had stopped by late Wednesday, leaving rescue workers to focus primarily on the grueling task of rescuing victims.
“Unfortunately, there are fatalities in some vehicles,” Transport Minister Oscar Puente said.
Spanish authorities sent about 1,000 soldiers to help search for survivors and extract victims from beneath the muddy rubble.
The country’s defense minister said soldiers had recovered 22 bodies and rescued 110 people by Wednesday night.
“We are searching door to door,” military rescue team commander Ángel Martínez told state radio network RNE on Thursday from the northern Valencian town of Utiel, where at least six people were confirmed dead.
“What’s sad is the people who died. So many people died,” Encarna, a teacher from Utiel, said as she looked around at the ruins of her home. “This is my savings, my efforts, my life. But we’re living.”
Climate scientists blame the scale of the disaster on the confluence of the rivers. Factors related to anthropogenic climate changea warming atmosphere allows storm systems to hold more moisture, and even when the speed of the jet stream slows, storms are not quickly dislodged, devastating Valencia’s dry and drought-stricken soils could not absorb heavy rain.
Valencia remained partially isolated as of Thursday, with railway lines and major roads impassable due to flooding.
The high-speed train linking the regional capital Valencia city with the capital Madrid is unlikely to resume service by the end of the week, officials said.
While Valencia was left in rubble and devastation and cleanup was certain to take weeks, the entire country was plunged into grief.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez was in the area on Thursday, the first day of a three-day official mourning period, to inspect the destruction himself.
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