Written by Eva Manez and David Latona

LA ALCUDIA, Spain (Reuters) – At least 95 people died in what is likely the deadliest flood to hit Spain in its modern history, after torrential rain battered the eastern part of Valencia, sweeping away bridges and buildings, local authorities said on Wednesday.

A year’s worth of rain fell in eight hours in parts of Valencia on Tuesday, meteorologists said, causing backlogs on highways and flooding farmland in the region, which produces two-thirds of the citrus grown in Spain, a leading global exporter.

Residents in the hardest-hit areas described seeing brown water gushing through streets, uprooting trees and dragging chunks of walls off buildings, and climbing onto the roofs of people’s cars.

“This is a river running through you,” said Denis Hlavaty, waiting to be rescued on the ledge of the gas station where he works in the regional capital. “The gates were removed and I spent the night there, surrounded by water 2 meters (6.5 feet) deep.”

Defense Minister Margarita Robles told radio station Cadena Ser that a military unit specializing in rescue operations would begin combing through mud and debris with search dogs in the hardest-hit areas on Thursday.

When asked whether the number of victims would increase, he said: “Unfortunately, we are not optimistic.” The teams brought 50 mobile morgues with them.

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has promised to rebuild the destroyed infrastructure and said in a televised speech: “For those who are still searching for their loved ones right now, all of Spain is crying with you.”

Footage taken by emergency services from a helicopter showed bridges collapsing and cars and trucks piled up on highways between flooded areas outside the city of Valencia.

Officials said trains to the cities of Madrid and Barcelona were canceled due to the flooding, and schools and other essential services were suspended in the worst-hit areas.

Energy company i-DE, owned by Europe’s largest utility Iberdrola, said about 150,000 customers were without electricity in Valencia.

Emergency services in the area urged citizens to avoid road travel and follow official advice.

More than 400 mm (15-3/4 inches) of rainfall was recorded in some parts of the Valencia region, such as the towns of Turis, Chiva or Bunol, prompting the state weather agency AEMET to issue a red alert on Tuesday. It was lowered to amber color as the rain eased on Wednesday.

Flooding was also experienced in other parts of the country, including the southern region of Andalusia, and forecasters warned that bad weather would increase in the future as the storm moved north-east.

“(The floodwaters) took away a lot of dogs, a lot of horses, everything,” said Antonio Carmona, a construction worker and resident of Alora in Andalusia.

SPAIN’S DEADLIEST FLOODS

The death toll, which included three people in other regions, appears to be the worst death toll in Europe from flooding since 2021, when at least 185 people died in Germany. This is probably Spain’s worst case in its modern history; In 1996, the number of deaths in the flood near the town of Biescas in the Pyrenees mountains exceeded 87 people.

During the flood that occurred in the city of Valencia in 1957, a new canal was built on the Turia river to prevent floods in the city center.

Juanma Moreno, Andalusia’s regional leader, said a 71-year-old British man died of heart failure in hospital after being rescued from his flooded home in Malaga due to hypothermia.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said at X that Europe is ready to help. “What we are seeing in Spain is devastating,” he said on X.

ASAJA, one of Spain’s largest farmer groups, said serious damage to crops was expected on Tuesday.

Spain is the world’s largest exporter of fresh and dried oranges, according to trade data provider Observatory of Economic Complexity, and Valencia accounts for about 60% of the country’s citrus production, according to the Valencian Institute of Agricultural Research.

Scientists say that extreme weather events are becoming more common due to climate change. Meteorologists think that the warming of the Mediterranean Sea, which increases water evaporation, plays an important role in making showers more intense.

“Such events, which used to occur decades apart, are now becoming more frequent and their destructive capacity is greater,” said Ernesto Rodríguez Camino, senior state meteorologist and member of the Spanish Meteorological Society.

(Reporting by Eva Manez, Emma Pinedo, David Latona and Inti Landauro; Writing by Charlie Devereux; Editing by Andrei Khalip, Helen Popper, Alison Williams, Gareth Jones and Sandra Maler)