Chiva, Spain — Historical death toll flash floods in Spain it had risen to at least 205 people on Friday, with many more believed to be missing, as the initial shock gave way to anger, frustration and an outpouring of solidarity. Spanish emergency authorities said 202 of the victims were in the Valencia region alone, and officials warned more rain was expected in the coming days.

The damage from the storm on Tuesday and Wednesday was reminiscent of the aftermath of a tsunami, with survivors left to pick up the pieces as they mourn loved ones lost in Spain’s deadliest natural disaster in living memory.

Many streets were still blocked by piled-up vehicles and debris, in some cases trapping residents in their homes.

Some places still do not have electricity, running water or stable telephone connections.

“It’s a disaster and there’s very little help”

“The situation is unbelievable. It’s a disaster and there is very little help,” said Emilio Cuartero, a resident of Masanasa, on the outskirts of Valencia. “We need machines, cranes, so that the construction sites can be accessed. We need a lot of help and bread and water.”

In Khiva, residents were busy clearing debris from muddy streets on Friday. The city of Valencia received more rain in eight hours on Tuesday than in the last 20 months, and the water overflowed a gully that runs through the city, breaking roads and walls of houses.

The mayor, Amparo Fort, told RNE radio that “whole houses have disappeared, we don’t know if there were people inside or not.”

So far 205 bodies have been recovered – 202 in Valencia, two in the Castilla La Mancha region and one more in Andalusia. Security forces and soldiers are busy searching for an unknown number of missing people, many fearing they will still be trapped in destroyed vehicles or flooded garages.

“I’ve been there all my life, all my memories are there, my parents lived there … and now, in one night, everything is gone,” Chiva resident Juan Vicente Pérez told The Associated Press near the place where he lost his house. “If we had waited another five minutes, we wouldn’t be here in this world.”

Maps show the extent of flooding in Spain, where more rain is forecast

Before-and-after satellite images of the city of Valencia illustrated the extent of the catastrophe, showing the transformation of the Mediterranean metropolis into a landscape flooded with muddy waters. Highway V-33 was completely covered in the brown of a thick layer of mud.

Meanwhile, maps posted online by Spain’s National Meteorological Agency showed the heavy rainfall in the worst-hit areas.

One image showed some areas just west of the city of Valencia, including Chiva, receiving more than 325 millimeters, or more than a foot, of rain on October 29 alone. A significant portion of the Valencia region received between five and 7 inches on the same day.

As authorities have repeatedly said, more storms were still expected. Spain’s weather agency on Friday issued warnings for heavy rain in Tarragona, Catalonia, as well as parts of the Balearic Islands and western Andalusia in the country’s southwest.

Residents criticize the lack of help and lack of advance warning

The tragedy triggered a wave of local solidarity. Residents in communities such as Paiporta – where at least 62 people died – and Catarroja walked miles in sticky mud to Valencia to get supplies, passing neighbors in unaffected areas bringing water, essentials and shovels or brooms to help remove mud. . The number of people coming to help is so great that the authorities have asked them not to drive there because they block roads needed by emergency services.

In addition to contributions from volunteers, associations such as the Red Cross and city councils distribute food.

Meanwhile, flood survivors and volunteers are engaged in the titanic task of cleaning up a pervasive layer of thick mud. The storm knocked out power and water service Tuesday night, but about 85 percent of the 155,000 affected customers had power restored by Friday, the company said in a statement.

“This is a disaster. There are many old people who don’t have medicine. There are children who don’t have food. We don’t have milk, we don’t have water. We don’t have access to anything,” said a resident of Alfafar, one of the most affected towns in the south of Valencia, for the state television station TVE.—No one even came to warn us on the first day.

Juan Ramón Adsuara, the mayor of Alfafar, said aid was not enough for residents caught in an “extreme situation”.

“There are people living with dead bodies at home. It’s very sad. We are organizing, but we are left with nothing,” he told reporters. “We go in vans to Valencia, buy and come back, but here we are totally forgotten.”

Rushing water turned narrow streets into death traps and spawned rivers that tore through homes and businesses, leaving many uninhabitable.

Some shops were looted and the authorities arrested 50 people.

Social media has channeled the needs of those affected. Some have posted pictures of missing people in the hope of getting information about their whereabouts, while others have launched initiatives such as Suport Mutu – or Mutual Support – which connects requests for help with people who offer it. Others have organized collections of basic goods across the country or launched fundraisers.

The role of climate change in the Spanish flood disaster

Spain’s Mediterranean coast is used to autumn storms that can cause flooding, but this was the strongest flash flood in recent memory. Scientists link it climate changewhich is also behind the increasingly high temperatures and droughts in Spain and the 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 partial analysis released Thursday by the World Weather Attribution, a group of dozens of international scientists who study the role of global warming in extreme weather conditions.

Spain suffered a drought of almost two years, which made the flooding worse because the dry ground was so hard that it could not absorb the rain.

In August 1996, a flood swept away a campsite along the Gallego River in Biescas, in the northeast, killing 87 people.