MADRID (AP) — In a matter of minutes, flash floods caused by heavy downpours in eastern Spain on Tuesday swept away everything in their path. With no time to react, people were trapped in vehicles, homes and businesses. Many died and thousands saw livelihoods shattered.
Two days later, — 155 in the eastern Valencia region alone, two in Castilla La Mancha and one in Andalusia — and continue to search for an unknown number of missing people. People have begun to clean up the thick layers of mud that covered houses and streets full of debris, all while facing power and water cuts and shortages of some basic goods. Inside some of the vehicles that the water washed into piles or crashed into buildings, there were still bodies waiting to be identified.
Here are a few things to know about Spain’s deadliest storm in living memory: What happened? The storms concentrated over the Magro and Turia river basins and, in the Poyo riverbed, produced walls of water that overflowed riverbanks, catching people unaware as they went on with their daily lives, with many coming home from work on Tuesday evening. In the blink of an eye, the muddy water covered roads, railways and entered houses and businesses in villages on the southern outskirts of Valencia city. Drivers, with their vehicles converted into boats, had to take shelter on car roofs, while residents tried to take refuge on higher ground.
The downpour was stunning. Spain’s national weather service said that in the hard-hit loc.