Spain races to find survivors as floods kill at least 95

Rescuers are racing to find survivors from once-in-a-generation floods in Spain that have killed at least 95 people and left towns submerged in a muddy deluge with overturned cars scattered across streets.

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

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

Up to a year’s rain fell in a few hours on the eastern city of Valencia and its surrounding region on Tuesday, sending torrents of water and mud through towns and cities.

Rescuers scrambled to get survivors off roofs with helicopters while others searched houses, some with water up to their necks.

Emergency services carried out 200 rescues on the ground and 70 aerial evacuations on Wednesday, said Valencia regional government chief Carlos Mazon.

Valencia’s emergency services announced a provisional death toll of 92, adding that bodies were still being recovered. Two people died in neighbouring Castilla-La Mancha and another victim was reported in Andalusia in the south, officials said.

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

Officials in the Valencia region announced that survivors were being sheltered in temporary accommodations such as fire stations.

Rail and air transport remained severely disrupted.

The flood toll is Spain’s deadliest since 1973 when at least 150 people were estimated to have died in the southeastern provinces of Granada, Murcia and Almeria.

Scientists have warned that extreme weather events such as the storm that hit Valencia are becoming more intense, lasting longer and occurring more frequently as a result of human-induced climate change.