“Yesterday was the worst day of my life,” Ricardo Gabaldón, mayor of Utiel, a town in Valencia, told national broadcaster RTVE on Wednesday. He said six residents were killed and more were missing.

“We were trapped like rats. Cars and garbage containers were flowing through the streets. The water was rising up to 3 meters (9.8 feet),” he said.

The Spanish government declared three days of mourning starting Thursday.

“For those searching for their loved ones, all of Spain feels your pain,” Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said in a televised speech.

Rescue personnel and more than 1,100 soldiers from Spain’s emergency response units have been deployed to affected areas. Spain’s central government established a crisis committee to coordinate recovery efforts.

Javier Berenguer, 63, fled his bakery in Utiel when the crushing water threatened to overwhelm him. He said his business was up to 6 feet tall and he feared his livelihood would be destroyed.

“I had to get out the window as much as I could because the water was already up to my shoulders. “I took shelter on the first floor with the neighbors and stayed there all night,” Berenguer told the Associated Press. “It took everything. I have to throw away everything in the oven, freezers, ovens, everything.”

Another Utiel resident, María Carmen Martínez, witnessed the harrowing rescue operation.

“It was terrible, terrible. “There was a man there who fell holding on to a fence and was calling people for help,” he said. “They couldn’t help him until the helicopters came and took him away.”

Paiporta, a town in Valencia, has suffered an extraordinary loss. Mayor Maribel Albalat told RTVE that more than 30 people died in the town of approximately 25 thousand people. These included six residents of a senior residence. News media published images of elderly people in chairs and wheelchairs at a nursing home in Paiporta; some were crying in obvious fear as the water rose above their knees.

“We don’t know what happened, but within 10 minutes the village was filled with water,” Albalat said.

Spain’s national meteorological service described the flood as “extraordinary”, stating that more rain fell in Valencia in eight hours than in the previous 20 months.

Located on the Mediterranean coast south of Barcelona, ​​Valencia is a tourist destination known for its beaches, citrus groves and the origins of paella with rice. The region has gorges and small river beds that are completely dry most of the year but quickly fill with water when it rains. Many of them pass through residential areas.

As the flood waters receded, thick layers of mud mixed with garbage made some streets unrecognizable.

“The neighborhood was destroyed, all the cars were on top of each other, literally torn to shreds,” Christian Viena, a bar owner in Valencia’s Barrio de la Torre village, said by phone. “Everything is a complete wreck, everything is ready to be thrown away. “The mud is almost 30 centimeters (11 inches) deep.”

Outside Viena’s bar, people were coming out to see what they could salvage. Cars were piled up on top of each other and the streets were filled with waterlogged branches.

Spain has experienced similar autumn storms in recent years. But nothing compares to the devastation of the last two days, reminiscent of the 2021 floods in Germany and Belgium that killed 230 people.

In other regions, the death toll is likely to rise as victims have not yet been reported and searches continue in hard-to-reach areas.

“We are facing a very difficult situation,” said Ángel Víctor Torres, minister of regional policies. “We cannot give the number of missing people, it shows the magnitude of the tragedy.”

Spain is still recovering from a severe drought and has recorded record high temperatures in recent years. Scientists say the increase in extreme weather events is likely linked to climate change. Prolonged drought makes it difficult for the soil to absorb large amounts of water.

The storms also spawned a rare tornado and a freak hailstorm that left holes in car windows and greenhouses.

Transportation was also affected. A high-speed train with nearly 300 people on board derailed near Malaga, although railway officials said no one was injured. High-speed train service between the city of Valencia and Madrid was disrupted and the transport ministry said it could take up to four days to restore high-speed train service to the capital due to damage to the line. Bus and commuter rail lines were likewise disrupted. Many flights were canceled on Tuesday night, leaving around 1,500 people stranded overnight at Valencia airport. Flights resumed on Wednesday.

Football matches involving Valencia and Levante were canceled and players from Barcelona and Madrid observed a minute’s silence for flood victims ahead of training on Wednesday.

Valencia regional president Carlos Mazón urged people to stay at home, saying road travel was difficult due to fallen trees and wrecked vehicles. Rescue efforts were hampered by power lines and power outages, and the regional emergency service responded to about 30,000 calls, Mazón said.

The EU will “help coordinate rescue teams” using the Copernicus geo-tracking satellite system, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told reporters in Brussels.

Some citizens announced the news of their missing relatives through social media, television and radio broadcasts.

Leonardo Enrique told RTVE that his family searched for hours for his son, Leonardo Enrique Rivera, 40, who was driving the delivery van when it started raining. Enrique said his son sent a message saying his minibus was submerged and that another vehicle had hit him near the worst-hit industrial town of Ribarroja.