BARRIO DE LA TORRE, Spain (AP) — Teams searched Thursday for bodies in stranded cars and waterlogged buildings as people tried to salvage what they could from their ruined homes following monstrous flash floods in Spain which cost the lives of at least 140 people.

Spain’s worst natural disaster this century has left a trail of destruction and there are fears more horrors could be uncovered thanks to the ever-present layers of mud that walls of water left in their wake Tuesday night and early Wednesday.

LEARN MORE: Devastating flash floods in eastern and southern Spain kill at least 95 people

An unknown number of people remain missing.

“Unfortunately, there are deaths inside some vehicles,” said Spanish Transport Minister Óscar Puente.

The considerable damage is reminiscent of the consequences of a hurricane or tsunami.

Cars stacked on top of each other like fallen dominoes, uprooted trees, downed power lines and household items, all mired in the mud that has covered the streets of dozens of communities in the hardest-hit Valencia region, where at least 92 people died.

Rushing waters turned narrow streets into death traps and spawned rivers that destroyed homes and businesses, sweeping away cars, people and anything in their path. Floods destroyed bridges and made roads unrecognizable.

Luís Sánchez, a welder, was one of the lucky ones when the storm transformed the V-31 highway south of the city of Valencia into a floating cemetery littered with hundreds of vehicles. He said he saved several people.

“I saw bodies floating. I called but nothing,” said Sánchez. “The firefighters took the elderly people first, when they could get in. I come from the surrounding area, so I tried to help and rescue people. people were crying everywhere, they were stuck.

Regional authorities said late Wednesday it appeared no one was left stranded on rooftops or in cars needing rescue after helicopters rescued some 70 people.

“Our priority is to find the victims and the missing so that we can help end the suffering of their families,” Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said after meeting regional officials and emergency services in Valencia on Thursday. the first of three days of official mourning. .

Damaged railway tracks and farms

Spain’s Mediterranean coast is used to autumn storms that can cause flooding, but this was the most powerful flash flood in recent memory. Scientists link it to climate change, which is also causing higher temperatures and droughts in Spain and warming of the Mediterranean Sea.

The greatest pain was concentrated in Paiporta, a community of 25,000 residents near the city of Valencia, where Mayor Maribel Albalat said Thursday that 62 people had died.

“(Paiporta) has never had flooding, we never have that kind of problem. And we found a lot of elderly people in the city center,” Albalat told national broadcaster RTVE. “There were also a lot of people coming to take their cars out of their garage… it was a real trap.”

While municipalities near the city of Valencia were hardest hit by the suffering, the storms unleashed their fury across large swaths of the southern and eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula. Two deaths were reported in the neighboring region of Castilla La Mancha and one in southern Andalusia.

Castilla La Mancha regional president Emilion García-Page said at least one Guardia Civil police officer was among several people missing in the town of Letur.

Houses were left without water as far as Malaga, in Andalusia, where a high-speed train derailed on Tuesday evening, without any of the approximately 300 passengers being injured.

Greenhouses and farms in southern Spain, known as the garden of Europe for its exported products, were also destroyed by heavy rains and floods. The storms spawned a freak tornado in Valencia and a hailstorm that punched holes in cars in Andalusia.

Heavy rains continued further north on Thursday as the Spanish weather agency issued a red alert for several counties in Castellón, in the eastern region of Valencia, and for Tarragona in Catalonia. An orange alert has been issued for the southwest of Cádiz.

“This storm front is still present,” the Prime Minister said. “Stay at home and follow official advice and you will help save lives.”

The search continues amid the destruction

More than 1,000 soldiers from Spain’s emergency rescue units joined regional and local rescue workers to search for bodies and survivors. Soldiers had recovered 22 bodies and rescued 110 people by Wednesday evening.

“We are searching house by house,” Ángel Martínez, a member of a military emergency unit, told Spanish national radio RNE from the town of Utiel, where at least six people died.

Some 150,000 Valencia residents were without electricity on Wednesday, but almost half had it on Thursday, Spanish news agency EFE reported. An unknown number had no running water and relied on whatever bottled water they could find.

The region remained partly isolated with several roads cut and train lines disrupted, including high-speed service to Madrid, which authorities say will not be repaired for two to three weeks.

A man cried as he showed a reporter from national broadcaster RTVE the shell of what was once the ground floor of his house in Catarroja, a town south of Valencia. It looked like a bomb had gone off inside, obliterating furniture and personal belongings and tearing paint off some of the walls.

The chaos also prompted some to break and seize merchandise. National police made 39 arrests Wednesday for looting stores in areas affected by the storms. The Civil Guard deployed agents to stop the looting of homes, cars and shopping centers.

Officials questioned over late flood warnings

This severe weather event surprised regional government officials. Spain’s national weather service said it had rained more in eight hours in the Valencian town of Chiva than in the previous 20 months, calling the deluge “extraordinary.”

But the relative calm of the next day also provided time to reflect and question the official response. The regional government of Valencia is being criticized for only sending flood warnings to citizens’ cell phones at 8 p.m. on Tuesday, when flooding had already started in some areas and well after the national meteorological agency had issued a red alert for heavy rain.

Andreu Salom, mayor of the Valencian village of L’Alcudia, told RTVE that his town had lost at least two residents, a girl and her elderly mother who lived together, and that police were still searching for a driver of truck missing.

He also complained that he and his residents were not warned of the disaster that occurred when the Magro River burst its banks on Tuesday evening.

“I was on my way to check the river level myself because I had no information,” Salom said. “I went there with the local police but we had to turn back because a tsunami of water, mud, reeds and earth was already entering the town.”

Mari Carmen Pérez said by telephone from Barrio de la Torre, a suburb of the city of Valencia, that her phone rang with the flood warning after rushing waters had already forced the front door and filled the first floor, forcing his family to flee upstairs.

“They had no idea what was going on,” said Pérez, a cleaner. “Everything is ruined. People here, we’ve never seen anything like this.

Valencia regional president Carlos Mazón defended his administration’s handling of the crisis, saying “all our supervisors followed standard protocol.”

Wilson reported from Barcelona, ​​Spain and Medrano from Madrid.