Spain flood death toll tops 200 as rescue teams search for missing | Flood News

Rescuers in Spain are struggling to reach areas still cut off by heavy rains, as the death toll from catastrophic flooding rose to 205 in Europe's worst weather disaster in five decades.

In Valencia, the eastern region hit hardest by the devastation this week, hundreds of soldiers were deployed to search for missing people and help survivors of the storm that triggered a new weather warning in Huelva, southwestern Spain.

Officials said the death toll was likely to continue to rise. It is already Spain's worst flooding disaster in modern history and the deadliest to hit Europe since the 1970s.

On Tuesday, flash floods caused by heavy rains swept away everything in their path in minutes – destroying roads, railway tracks and bridges while rivers burst their banks. The flood also inundated thousands of hectares of farmland.

Thousands of people across Valencia took part in a mass cleanup on Friday. Residents of Chiva, one of the cities that experienced the worst of the rains, carried buckets, shovels, brooms, mops and water bottles.

“About a year’s worth of rain fell in a single day and as you can see, this had a devastating impact on the community. They are still cut off – no electricity, no connection to any power grid here,” Al Jazeera’s Sonia Gallego said in a report from Chiva.

The Valencian city received more rain in eight hours on Tuesday than in the previous 20 months, and the water poured over a ravine that runs through the city, tearing up streets and the walls of houses. Mayor Amparo Fort told RNE Radio that “entire houses have disappeared.” We don’t know if there were people there or not.”

“It is the community itself that has to come together and ensure everyone is taken care of, since so far they have not received any help from the regional government,” Gallego said, noting that people from other cities came to help clear the rubble .

“Everything is gone in one night”

So far, 205 bodies have been recovered – 202 in Valencia, two in the Castile-La Mancha region south and east of Madrid and another in Andalusia in southern Spain.

Law enforcement agencies have rescued more than 4,500 people trapped by the floods, Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska said at a news conference in Valencia.

Members of the security forces and 1,700 emergency room soldiers are searching for an unknown number of missing people. Another 500 soldiers will be deployed on Saturday, regional authorities said.

Meanwhile, more storms are expected. Spain's weather agency issued warnings of heavy rain in Tarragona, Catalonia, and part of the Balearic Islands.

In Valencia, many streets were still blocked by piled-up vehicles and debris, in some cases leaving residents trapped in their homes. In some places there is still no electricity, running water or stable telephone connections.

“The situation is incredible. It is a disaster and there is very little help,” Emilio Cuartero, a resident of Massanassa, on the outskirts of the city of Valencia, told The Associated Press. “We need machines and cranes so that the locations can be reached. We need a lot of help and bread and water.”

Speaking to the AP, Chiva resident Juan Vicente Perez said: “I have been there my whole life. All my memories are there. My parents lived there… and now everything is gone in one night.”

Before-and-after satellite images of the city of Valencia highlighted the extent of the disaster, showing the Mediterranean metropolis's transformation into a landscape inundated by muddy water. The V-33 highway was covered with a thick layer of mud.