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    • Floods in Spain have left at least 158 ​​dead
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    Floods in Spain have left at least 158 ​​dead

    Online Niel Posted on

    By ALBERTO SAIZ, JOSEPH WILSON and TERESA MEDRANO

    BARRIO DE LA TORRE, Spain (AP) — Crews searched Thursday for bodies in stuck cars and waterlogged buildings as residents salvaged what they could from their ruined homes after monstrous flash floods in Spain, which has resulted in at least 158 ​​deaths, with 155 deaths confirmed in the eastern Valencia region alone.

    More horrors emerged Thursday from the debris and ubiquitous layers of mud left by walls of water that produced Spain’s deadliest natural disaster in living memory. The damage was reminiscent of the aftermath of a tsunami, with survivors left to pick up the pieces while mourning their loved ones.

    Cars were piled on top of each other like fallen dominoes, uprooted trees, downed power lines and household items all mired in mud covering the streets in dozens of communities in Valencia, a region south of Barcelona on the Mediterranean coast.

    An unknown number of people are still missing and more victims may be found.

    “Unfortunately, there are dead people in some vehicles,” Spanish Transport Minister Óscar Puente said on Thursday morning, before the death toll rose from 95 on Wednesday night.

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    A man cleans his flood-damaged home in Utiel, Spain, Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

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    Rushing water turned narrow streets into death traps and spawned rivers that tore through homes and businesses, sweeping away cars, people and anything else in its path. The floods demolished bridges and left roads unrecognizable.

    Luís Sánchez, a welder, said he rescued several people who were stuck in their cars on the flooded V-31 highway south of the city of Valencia. The road quickly became a floating graveyard littered with hundreds of vehicles.

    “I saw bodies floating by. I called, but nothing,” Sánchez said. “The firemen took the old people first, when they could enter. I’m from nearby so I tried to help and save people. People were crying everywhere, they were trapped.”

    Regional authorities said late Wednesday that helicopter rescuers had rescued about 70 people trapped on rooftops and in cars, but ground crews were far from finished.

    “Our priority is to find the victims and the missing so we can help end the suffering of their families,” Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said after meeting officials and emergency services in Valencia on Thursday, the first of three official days of mourning

    An “extraordinary” flood.

    Spain’s Mediterranean coast is used to autumn storms that can cause flooding, but this was the strongest flash flood event in recent memory. Scientists link it to climate changewhich is also behind the increasingly high temperatures and droughts in Spain and warming of the Mediterranean Sea.

    Human-caused climate change has doubled the likelihood of a storm like this week’s deluge in Valencia, according to a quick but partial analysis Thursday by the World Weather Attribution, which includes dozens of international scientists studying the role of global warming in extreme weather .

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