• Spain’s eastern Valencia province has been hit by historically heavy rains.
• At least 155 people have been killed by flash floods in the region, local emergency services said.
• The region is a large part of Spain’s economy, with significant automotive and manufacturing industries.

Historic, deadly flash floods in eastern Spain have plagued the region since Tuesday.

Flooding caused by torrential rains has killed at least 155 people in Valencia province, regional emergency services saidciting a provisional death toll.

A yellow storm warning was still in effect in the province of Valencia as of Thursday said.

Although heavy rain is common in the region in autumn – part of a phenomenon known as “cold drops” – this was extreme.

According to the Meteorological State of Spain Agencyit was a historic storm in the province, the worst in the 21st century and stronger than any since 1987.

It said that tuesday was the worst day of the storm, but the bad weather will continue throughout the week.

Images and videos from the region showed brown water flowing through fields, blocking roads and hitting some built-up areas.

Valencia, the regional center and Spain’s third largest city, appeared to be unaffected by the flooding.

At Pastisseria Soler, a bakery south of Valencia, the owner described the flood damage as “terrible” in a phone call.

The person, who declined to be identified, told Business Insider that a nearby river overflowed and reached their street in just ten minutes. Power outages meant all their stock had to be thrown away, she said.

Insurers are still calculating what the cost of the disaster could be – an early estimate placed it easily in the billions of euros.

On a Spanish government briefingthe most important industry in Valencia is car manufacturing. It also mentioned chemicals, manufacturing, agri-food and IT.

It was not immediately clear whether specific industries or companies were badly affected by the flooding.

Cristina del Rey, Ford Spain’s director of communications, told BI that her company’s plant in Valencia suffered no direct damage from the floods, but would be closed on Wednesday and Thursday.

At a press conference On Thursday, Spain’s transport minister said it would take three weeks to restore the damaged rail line linking Valencia with Madrid, the Spanish capital.

On Tuesday, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said was closely following reports of missing persons and storm damage and that all emergency services were being dispatched in response to the storm.

The provisional death toll from the floods placed it among the worst natural disasters in Western Europe in recent years, though not the worst.

Widespread flooding in July 2021 that hit Belgium, Germany and neighboring countries killed more than 200 people. Overall, extreme weather in Europe caused economic losses of assets estimated at more than $800 billion between 1980 and 2023, according to European Environment Agency.

According to one report from the Aon Spain Foundation, a private nonprofit foundation that works to prevent and assist natural disasters in Spain, the annual cost of natural disasters in Spain, including floods, has been estimated to be between about $940 million and 2 .5 billion between 2016 and 2021.

In an X post on Wednesday, the mayor of Valencia said the province was facing one of the most difficult and painful moments in its history.

IN A address On Thursday, Sánchez said that all the emergency services that have been dispatched are working around the clock to find missing people and the bodies of the victims and to ensure that all residents can return to their homes as soon as possible.

He urged all residents to stay home as the storm continues.

“Right now, the most important thing is to protect as many lives as possible and to guarantee as many lives as possible in this dramatic and tragic crisis that we are experiencing,” he said.

The government has declared three days of national mourning, from Thursday to Saturday.