VALENCIA – Spanish rescue teams have set up a temporary morgue at a convention center in Valencia as they work to reach areas isolated by severe flooding that has claimed at least 205 lives in what has become Europe’s deadliest weather disaster in fifty years. Valencia, the region hardest hit, has reported 202 fatalities, with additional deaths in Castilla La Mancha and Andalusia.
The current death toll is approaching that of Romania’s 1970 floods, which left 209 dead, as authorities deploy extensive resources to locate the missing and assist survivors. Around 500 soldiers have joined the search and rescue efforts, while a new weather alert has been issued for Huelva in southwestern Spain, with further storms anticipated.
Emergency teams are also working to restore utilities, with about 75,000 homes still without power. Firefighters have been siphoning petrol from abandoned cars to fuel generators in a bid to provide electricity to affected households. Many vehicles remain stranded across the region, submerged by floodwaters following Tuesday’s torrential rains.
The floods brought a year’s worth of rainfall in just eight hours, destroying roads, railways, and bridges as rivers overflowed. The damage has left large parts of the region in urgent need of aid and reconstruction, with the death toll likely to rise as dozens of people remain unaccounted for. (NNT)
