Spain desperately searches for survivors as floods kill at least 95 | Weather News

Rescuers are searching for survivors of the once-in-a-lifetime flooding in Spain that killed at least 95 people and left towns inundated in a muddy flood with overturned cars strewn across the streets.

Around 1,000 soldiers joined police and firefighters in the gruesome search for bodies in the Valencia region on Thursday, as the country began three days of mourning.

The death toll will rise because “there are a lot of missing people,” Territorial Policy Minister Angel Victor Torres said late Wednesday.

Up to a year's worth of rain fell on the eastern city of Valencia and the surrounding region in a matter of hours on Tuesday, sending streams of water and mud through cities and towns.

Rescuers scrambled to pluck survivors from rooftops with helicopters while others searched homes, some with water up to their necks.

Emergency services carried out 200 rescues on the ground and 70 evacuations from the air on Wednesday, said Carlos Mazon, head of the regional government of Valencia.

Valencia emergency services reported a preliminary death toll of 92, adding that bodies were still being recovered. Two people died in neighboring Castile-La Mancha and another victim was reported in Andalusia to the south, officials said.

A sea of ​​piled-up cars and mud-filled streets covered Sedavi, a suburb of the Mediterranean city of Valencia.

Officials in the Valencia region said survivors would be housed in temporary shelters such as fire stations.

Rail and air traffic continued to be severely affected.

The flood disaster is the worst in Spain since 1973, when at least 150 people are estimated to have died in the southeastern provinces of Granada, Murcia and Almeria.

Scientists warn that extreme weather events like the storm that hit Valencia are becoming more intense, lasting longer and occurring more frequently due to human-caused climate change.