After returning home, local Juan Pérez said: “All my life, my memories.

“My parents lived there. And now overnight, it’s all gone.”

The civil protection agency, overseen by the regional government, issued an emergency alert on Tuesday for the phones of people in and around Valencia after 8:00 p.m. local time (19:00 GMT), by which time the floodwaters had run high. growing in many areas and in some cases already wreaking havoc.

Juan González, who lives in the town of Aldaia, said the area is prone to flash flooding.

“It’s outrageous that our local government didn’t do anything about it, knowing this was coming,” he said.

In the devastated town of Paiporta, where more than 60 deaths have been reported so far, residents have expressed frustration that aid is coming too slowly.

“There are not enough firefighters, the shovels haven’t arrived,” Paco Clemente, a 33-year-old pharmacist, told the AFP news agency as he helped clear mud from a friend’s house.