Spain searches for bodies after flood of the century claims at least 95 lives

Survivors of the worst natural disaster to hit Spain this century awoke to scenes of devastation on Thursday after villages were wiped out bymonstrous flash floodsthat claimed at least 95 lives. The death toll is expected to rise as search efforts continue with officials removing bodies from vehicles and an unknown number of people still missing.

“Unfortunately, there are dead people inside some vehicles,” said Spain’s Transport Minister Óscar Puente in reference to hundreds of cars and trucks stranded on roads stained brown with mud.

The aftermath of the floods looked eerily similar to the damage left by a strong hurricane or tsunami.

Cars piled on one another like broken toys, uprooted trees, downed power lines and household items all mired in a layer of mud covered the streets of Barrio de la Torre, a suburb of Valencia, just one of dozens of damaged localities in the hard-hit region of Valencia, where 92 people died between late Tuesday and Wednesday morning.

Walls of rushing water turned narrow streets into death traps and spawned rivers that ripped into the ground floors of homes and swept away cars, people and anything else in its path.

“The neighborhood is destroyed, all the cars are on top of each other, it’s literally smashed up,” said Christian Viena, a bar owner in Barrio de la Torre.

Regional authorities said late Wednesday it appeared there was no one left stranded on rooftops or in cars in need of rescue after helicopters had saved some 70 people. But ground crews and citizens continued to inspect vehicles and homes that were damaged by the onslaught of water.

Over a thousand soldiers from Spain’s emergency rescue units joined regional and local emergency workers in the search for bodies and survivors. The defense minister said that soldiers alone had recovered 22 bodies and rescued 110 people by Wednesday night.

“We are searching house by house,” Ángel Martínez, official of a military emergency unit, told Spain’s national radio broadcaster RNE on Thursday from the town of Utiel, where at least six people died.