Spain races to find survivors as floods kill at least 95

Rescuers are frantically searching for survivors of Spain’s once-in-a-generation floods, which have caused towns to become submerged in a muddy deluge and left overturned cars strewn across the streets.

As three days of mourning eluded the Valencia region on Thursday, about 1, 000 soldiers joined police and firefighters in the grim search for bodies.

“There are many missing people,” according to Territorial Policy Minister Angel Victor Torres late on Wednesday, adding that the death toll will rise.

On Tuesday, up to a year of rain poured into Valencia’s eastern city and its surrounding area, sending torrents of mud and water through towns and cities.

While others searched homes, some with water up to their necks, rescuers scrambled to remove survivors from roofs with helicopters.

According to Carlos Mazon, the head of the regional government of Valencia, the emergency services performed 200 rescues on-the-ground and 70 evacuations from the air on Wednesday.

Valencia’s emergency services announced a provisional death toll of 92, adding that bodies were still being recovered. According to officials, two people died in the nearby Castilla-La Mancha and one more was reported in southern Andalusia.

A sea of piled-up cars and mud-swamped streets covered Sedavi, a suburb of the Mediterranean city of Valencia.

Authorities in the Valencia region made the announcement that survivors were being sheltered in temporary lodging, such as fire stations.

Rail and air transport remained severely disrupted.

The flood toll is Spain’s deadliest since 1973 when at least 150 people were estimated to have died in the southeastern provinces of Granada, Murcia and Almeria.

Source: Aljazeera