Associated Press

CHIVA, Spain (AP) — Irene Cuevas will never forget the sound of waves crashing under her apartment balcony.

If only there had been a flash in the dark to let her catch a glimpse of what sounded like a great roar.

“It was a constant fear because we had no light to see by,” Cuevas told The Associated Press. “I could hear the roar of the waves, which was incredible. The street was completely flooded and we were hoping for some lightning to at least see what situation we were in. All were waves, currents everywhere.

“We have that sound of waves burning in our memory.”

The devastating floods in eastern Spain this week, which has claimed more than 200 lives and destroyed countless homes and livelihoods, has also left a scar of terror in many survivors

Cuevas, a 48-year-old embryologist, lives in Chiva, a village perched on a hill about 30 kilometers (18 miles) from the city of Valencia, whose southern outskirts have also been devastated by the floods on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Chiva received more rain in eight hours than the city has experienced in the past 20 months. Cuevas was at home and saw how the gorge that divided her village suddenly overflowed with rushing water.

The tsunami-like wall of water claimed at least seven lives in Khiva, home to about 16,000 people, and the search continues for more missing, either in collapsed houses or in the gorge.

“It was terrifying because that night it started raining and the water started pouring down the gorge and started taking away cars and trees,” Cuevas said. “The underpasses of the bridges began to clog with debris, and water began to flow throughout the village.”

The gorge, called “Barranco de Chiva”, is normally dry, but is fed by several other spillways and channels water to the vineyards below.

The huge storm sent a blast of water knocking down two of the four bridges spanning the gorge, while a third was left unsafe to cross. The sides of the gorge were eaten away, knocking down a sidewalk and several houses and tearing holes in others.

Cuevas, who moved to Chiva when he got married 18 years ago, lives a street away from the buildings that line the gorge. She and other people who live in her block helped several neighbors in the front building when they feared it would collapse. Neighbors said their building shook from the force of the water.

Cuevas and his fellow residents helped tie ropes or ropes across the street so people on the other side could hold on as they waded through the rushing water. Then they climbed the stairs and about 20 people spent a sleepless night in her second floor apartment and the apartment above.

Amparo Cerda, Cuevas’ upstairs neighbor, described herself traumatized by her memories of the waves’ fury and the sound of “doors exploding” from the force of the water.

It was as if their building had become a ship lost in a storm at sea in the dark night.

“There were waves in the gorge, waves on the street below where the water was coming the other way and draining into the water coming from the gorge,” Cuevas said. “So right here on this corner, right where the houses fell, the two currents hit and produced terrifying waves.”

“When daylight came, we could see the damage,” Cuevas said. “I saw all the houses that were gone and it was a sense of helplessness because you didn’t know where to start looking for people.”

Five days have passed since that night of terror, and in Chiva and other localities, such as Paiporta, Barrio de la Torre and Massanassa, citizens and volunteers launch to clear mountains of debris and thick layers of brown mud left by the water.

Five thousand more troops are arriving in the area this weekend to help the 2,500 already deployed. Thousands of police were also dispatched.

But for now the people themselves are still in charge.

“Now we have to clean up and try to get back to normal because more rain is forecast for the weekend and that’s not going to help,” Cuevas said. “We are trying to prepare everything for when the rains return. Because they will.”