Teams are searching for bodies in stranded cars and buildings as people tried to salvage what they could from their ruined homes following flash floods in Spain that claimed at least 155 lives.

Spain’s worst natural disaster this century has left a trail of destruction and there are fears more horrors could be discovered from the layers of mud the walls of water left in their wake Tuesday night and early Wednesday.

An unknown number of people remain missing.

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

Luis Sanchez, 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,” Mr. Sanchez said.

“The firefighters took the elderly first, when they could enter. 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 Sanchez said after meeting regional officials and emergency services in Valencia on Thursday. the first of three days of official mourning. .

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 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,” Mr Albalat told national broadcaster RTVE.

“There were also a lot of people coming to take their cars out of their garages… 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 Castellon, 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.”

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,” Angel Martinez, 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.

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.”