It Was 'the Worst Day' for Spain

At least 52 people have died in eastern Spain after flash floods swept away cars, turned village streets into rivers and disrupted rail lines and highways in the worst natural disaster to hit the European nation in recent memory, per the AP. Emergency services in the eastern region of Valencia confirmed a death toll of 51 people on Wednesday. The central government office for Castilla La Mancha region added that an 88-year-old woman was found dead in the city of Cuenca. Rainstorms on Tuesday caused flooding in a wide swath of southern and eastern Spain, stretching from Malaga to Valencia. Floods of mud-colored water tumbled vehicles down streets at high speeds, while pieces of wood swirled in the water with household items.

Police and rescue services used helicopters to lift people from their homes and rubber boats to reach drivers trapped on the roofs of cars. One elderly couple was rescued from the upper story of their house by a military unit using a bulldozer. "Yesterday was the worst day of my life," Ricardo Gabaldón, the mayor of Utiel, a town in Valencia, told RTVE. He said several people were still missing in his town. "We were trapped like rats. Cars and trash containers were flowing down the streets. The water was rising to [10 feet]," he said. Over 1,000 soldiers from Spain's emergency response units were deployed to the devastated areas. Rescue services were also rushing eastwards from other parts of Spain.

Spain's central government set up a crisis committee to help coordinate rescue efforts. Television reports showed videos shot by panicked residents documenting waters flooding the ground floors of apartments, streams bursting their banks, and at least one bridge giving way. Spain has experienced similar autumn storms in recent years. Nothing, however, compared to the devastation over the last two days, which recalls floods in Germany and Belgium in 2021 that saw 230 people killed. The death toll will likely rise with other regions yet to report victims and search efforts continuing in areas with difficult access. In the village of Letur in the neighboring Castilla La Mancha region, Mayor Sergio Marín Sánchez said six people were missing. (More Spain stories.)