BARRIO DE LA TORRE, Spain (AP) – Survivors of the worst natural disaster to hit Spain this century woke up to scenes of devastation Thursday after villages were destroyed by monstrous flash floods which claimed at least 95 lives.

The death toll is expected to rise as search efforts continue, with officials removing bodies from buildings and vehicles and an unknown number of people still missing.

“Unfortunately, there are dead people in some vehicles,” said Spanish Transport Minister Óscar Puente, referring to hundreds of cars and trucks stuck on mud-stained brown roads.

The following showed the damage left by a powerful hurricane or tsunami.

Cars piled on top of each other like broken toys, uprooted trees, downed power lines and household items all caked in a layer of mud covered the streets of Barrio de la Torre, a suburb of Valencia, just one of dozens from the heavily affected area. the Valencia region, where 92 people died between late Tuesday and early Wednesday.

Walls of rushing water turned narrow streets into death traps and spawned rivers that ripped through houses and swept away cars, people and anything else in their path. The floods brought down bridges and left roads unrecognizable.

“The neighborhood is destroyed, all the cars are on top of each other, it’s basically destroyed,” said Christian Viena, owner of a destroyed bar in Barrio de la Torre.

Regional authorities said late Wednesday that no one was stuck on roofs or in cars in need of rescue after helicopters rescued about 70 people. But ground crews and citizens continued to inspect vehicles and homes that were damaged by the onslaught of water.

“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 with regional officials and emergency services in Valencia on Thursday, the first of three days of official mourning. in the European country.

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.

While the greatest suffering was inflicted on municipalities near the city of Valencia, the storms unleashed their fury on huge areas of the southern and eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula. Two deaths were reported in the neighboring region of Castilla La Mancha. Southern Andalusia reported one death.

Homes were without water as far south-west as Malaga in Andalusia, where a high-speed train derailed on Tuesday night, although none of the nearly 300 passengers were injured.

Greenhouses and farms in southern Spain, known as the garden of Europe for its exported produce, were also ruined by heavy rain and flooding. The storms spawned a freak tornado in Valencia and a hailstorm that ripped holes in cars in Andalusia.

Heavy rain continued further north on Thursday, with the Spanish weather agency issuing a red alert for several counties in Castellón, the northernmost province in the Valencia region, and an orange alert for southern Tarragona, in northeastern Catalonia, and the west coast of Cádiz. throughout the country in the southwest.

“This storm front is still with us,” Sánchez said. “Stay at home and follow the official advice and you will help save lives.”

The search continues amid the destruction

More than a thousand soldiers from Spain’s emergency rescue units joined regional and local emergency workers in the search for bodies and survivors. Soldiers recovered 22 bodies and rescued 110 people by Wednesday night.

“We are searching house by house,” Ángel Martínez, with a military emergency unit, told Spanish national broadcaster RNE in the town of Utiel, where at least six people died.

About 150,000 people in Valencia were without electricity on Wednesday, but about half had power by Thursday, Spanish news agency EFE reported. An unknown number had no running water. Many bought whatever bottled water they could find.

People drove past stalled cars blocking the roads. The region remained partially isolated, with several roads closed and train lines down, including high-speed service to Madrid, which officials say will not be repaired for several days.

A man wept on national broadcaster RTVE’s footage as he showed the shell of what was once the ground floor of his house in Catarroja, a town south of Valencia. It looked like a bomb went off inside and wiped out his furniture and belongings, even stripping the paint off some of the walls and leaving mud in his wake.

Officials were questioned about the late flood warnings

The violent weather event surprised regional government officials. Spain’s national weather service said more rain fell in eight hours in the Valencian city of Chiva than in 20 months, calling the flood “extraordinary”.

However, the relative calm of the day after gave time to reflect and wonder if the authorities could have done more to limit the damage. Valencia’s regional government is being criticized for not sending flood warnings to people’s mobile phones until 8pm on Tuesday, when flooding had already started in some parts and long after the national weather agency had issued a red alert for heavy rains.

Andreu Salom, the mayor of the Valencian village of L’Alcudia, told RTVE that his town had lost at least two residents, a daughter and her elderly mother who lived together, and that police were still looking for the missing truck driver.

He also complained that he and his residents were not warned about the disaster, which occurred on Tuesday evening when the Magro River burst its banks.

“I myself was on my way to check the river level because I had no information,” Salom said. “I went with the local police, but we had to turn back because a tsunami of water, mud, reeds and earth was already entering the town.”

Mari Carmen Pérez said by phone from Barrio de la Torre that her phone rang with the flood warning after rushing water had already forced through her front door and filled her living room, kitchen and bathroom, forcing her family to flee upstairs.

“They had no idea what was going on,” said Pérez, a professional cleaner. “Everything is destroyed. People here have never seen anything like it.”

Valencia regional president Carlos Mazón defended his administration’s handling of the crisis, saying “all our supervisors followed standard protocol.”

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Wilson reported from Barcelona, ​​Spain. Associated Press writer Teresa Medrano in Madrid contributed to this report.