Rescue teams hunt for missing following deadly floods in Spain

UTIEL, Spain - Spain issued another storm warning on Oct 31 for part of the Valencia region

devastated by floods

that have killed at least 95 people, as rescuers scoured flooded fields and stranded cars for those still missing.

Local authorities have not disclosed how many people are still unaccounted for after Europe’s deadliest floods in years, but Defence Minister Margarita Robles said late on Oct 30 that the death toll was likely to rise.

Rescue workers combed the wreckage of vehicles that were caked in mud next to roads or in flooded fields, with some using heavy machinery to clear debris from the streets, television footage showed.

Calm weather returned on Oct 31 to the hardest-hit areas around the city of Valencia, Spain’s third-largest, but the Aemet state weather agency issued its highest level of alert for the province of Castellon. Farther north in the Catalonia region, an amber alert was issued for the city of Tarragona.

Meteorologists said a year’s worth of rain had fallen in eight hours in parts of Valencia on Oct 29, causing pile-ups on highways and submerging farmland in a region that produces about two-thirds of the citrus fruit grown in Spain, a leading global exporter of oranges.

The storm that caused the torrential downpours has since moved in a north-easterly direction.

“There are already very strong storms in the area, especially in the north of Castellon,” Aemet posted on its X account. “The adverse weather continues! Beware!” it added, saying that people should not travel to the area.

The floods in Valencia battered the region’s infrastructure, sweeping away bridges, roads, railway tracks and buildings as rivers burst their banks.

Residents described seeing people clambering onto the roofs of their cars as a churning tide of brown water gushed through the streets, uprooting trees and dragging away chunks of masonry from buildings.

Residents count losses

In the hard-hit rural town of Utiel, some 85km inland from the city of Valencia, the Magro river burst its banks, sending up to 3m of water into homes, most of which are single-storey.

Utiel’s mayor, Mr Ricardo Gabaldon, said at least six people had died in the town of about 12,000, most of them elderly or disabled people who were unable to clamber to safety.

Early on Oct 31, residents used water pumps carried on tractors as they started the clean-up, with children helping to sweep the sidewalks.

“The sorrow is for the people who have died,” said Ms Encarna, a 60-year-old teacher in the town, wiping away tears as she spoke at a flood-ravaged street near her damaged home. “These are my savings, my effort, my life. But we are alive.”

The floods have also wrecked crops and killed livestock.

Utiel residents Javier Iranzo, 47, and Ana Carmen Fernandez, 48, told Reuters that the flooding had completely wrecked their pig farm, drowning 50 of their animals.

They estimated damages of hundreds of thousands of euros and, despite government pledges of help, said they were worried about whether they would receive state aid to help rebuild. REUTERS