Neighbors, friends, relatives and strangers worked side by side in the mud. People brought water and food, shovels and brooms as they came to the aid of communities in the eastern region of Valencia Spain which was devastated by the recent floods.

At least 205 people are known to have died in the worst floods to hit Spain and Europe in decades, but the death toll is rising.

Experts estimate that about a year’s worth of rain fell in eight hours on Tuesday. The water rose quickly, pouring into apartments and houses on the ground floor, killing people who found themselves trapped there. Others died in their cars as they tried to flee.

Yesterday, around 500 soldiers were added to the 1,000 already deployed to hunt for the missing and help survivors.

But in Paiporta, a small town outside Valencia, where at least 45 people are reported to have been killed in the floods, the presence of emergency services and the army remained light. In their absence, ordinary people worked in groups to push thick, muddy water from houses and roads into street drains.

( Floods in Spain: “It will be a long time before everything returns to normal”Opens in a new window )

Volunteers set up tables to distribute donated clothes, bottles of water, milk and food to others in need. Some people walked two hours to send donations.

“On the first day, Wednesday morning, I saw the bodies of two people I knew,” said Kevin Asensi, who lives near La Torre, which was also heavily affected by the floods. Many people died in their homes, some whose bodies had probably not yet been found, he said. “Only the neighbors help, not the government… I don’t know why the army is not here, we need soldiers,” he said.

Another local, Luiz Migel, said he found it hard to put into words what he felt: “I lost everything, my house, my business.”

Why did Spain’s flash flood warning come so late?

Valencia’s city center was untouched by the floods and had an unsettling sense of normalcy on Friday. Tourists sat outside eating tapas and drinking wine, while just a few kilometers away people picked through the wreckage of their homes.

( Spain floods: Death toll rises to 205 as Valencia region warns of more rainOpens in a new window )

However, thousands of people came from the city and elsewhere to help those in the worst-affected areas. Traveling on foot, they brought supplies of food and water and handed out sandwiches to people working to clear mud from the roads. Others carried shovels to help with the cleanup effort, which is sure to take weeks.

“We weren’t affected, so we’re just trying to help,” said Belen Gomez, 23, from Valencia, speaking as she crossed a bridge from the city to La Torre.

Another woman, Lide Crespo, had gone door-to-door with a friend in Paiporta, before soon finding someone trying to clear mud and water from a house. “Everybody needs help, we came here and started helping,” she said.