Spain's flood death toll reaches 205 as maps and satellite images show the impact on Valencia and residents' reaction to the blast

Chiva, Spain – The death toll is historic Flash floods in Spain The number rose to at least 205 people on Friday, with many more missing, as the initial shock gave way to anger, frustration and a wave of solidarity. Spanish emergency authorities said 202 of the victims were in the Valencia region alone, and officials warned that more rain was expected in the coming days.

The damage caused by the storm on Tuesday and Wednesday was reminiscent of the aftermath of a tsunami, leaving survivors left to pick up the pieces as they mourned their loved ones killed in Spain's deadliest natural disaster in living memory.

Many roads were still blocked by piled-up vehicles and debris, in some cases leaving residents trapped in their homes.

In some places there is still no electricity, running water or stable telephone connections.

“It is a disaster and there is very little help”

“The situation is incredible. It is a disaster and there is very little help,” said Emilio Cuartero, a resident of Masanasa on the outskirts of Valencia. “We need machines and cranes so that the locations can be reached. We need a lot of help, bread and water.”

In Chiva, residents were busy clearing debris from mud-filled streets on Friday. The Valencian city received more rain in eight hours on Tuesday than in the previous 20 months, and the water poured over a ravine that runs through the city, tearing up streets and the walls of houses.

Mayor Amparo Fort told RNE Radio that “whole houses have disappeared, we don’t know if there were people in them or not.”

So far, 205 bodies have been recovered – 202 in Valencia, two in the Castile-La Mancha region and another in Andalusia. Security force members and soldiers are busy searching for an unknown number of missing people, with many fearing they are still trapped in wrecked cars or flooded garages.

“I've been there my whole life, all my memories are there, my parents lived there… and now in one night it's all gone,” Juan Vicente Pérez, a resident of Chiva, told The Associated Press near the site, where he lost his home. “If we had waited five more minutes, we wouldn’t be here in this world.”

Maps show the extent of flooding in Spain, where more rain is forecast

Before-and-after satellite images of the city of Valencia highlighted the extent of the disaster, showing the Mediterranean metropolis's transformation into a landscape inundated by muddy water. The V-33 highway was completely covered with a brown, thick layer of mud.

Maps drawn from data published by Spain's National Meteorological Agency, meanwhile, show the sheer amount of rainfall in the worst-hit areas.

Some areas west of the city of Valencia, including Chiva, received more than 325 millimeters, or more than a foot, of rain on October 29 alone. A significant portion of the Valencia region recorded between 5 and 7 inches on the same day.

As the authorities repeatedly emphasized, further storms were still to be expected. The Spanish weather agency warned on Friday of heavy rain in Tarragona, Catalonia, as well as part of the Balearic Islands and western Andalusia in the southwest of the country.

Residents complain about a lack of help and a lack of warning

The tragedy sparked a wave of local solidarity. Residents of communities like Paiporta – where at least 62 people died – and Catarroja have walked miles in the sticky mud to Valencia to get supplies, passing neighbors from unaffected areas who brought water, essential products and shovels or brooms, to help remove the mud. The number of people coming for help is so high that authorities have asked them not to go because they are blocking roads needed for emergency services.

In addition to the contributions of volunteers, associations such as the Red Cross and city councils distribute food.

Meanwhile, flood survivors and volunteers are engaged in the gargantuan task of clearing a pervasive layer of thick mud. The storm knocked out power and water service Tuesday evening, but about 85% of the 155,000 affected customers had power restored by Friday, the utility said in a statement.

“This is a catastrophe. There are many older people who do not have medication. There are children who have no food. We don't have milk, we don't have water. We don't have access to anything,” a resident of Alfafar, one of the hardest-hit towns in southern Valencia, told state television channel TVE. “No one came to warn us on the first day.”

Juan Ramón Adsuara, the mayor of Alfafar, said the aid was far from enough for residents who were in an “extreme situation.”

“There are people who live with corpses at home. That's very sad. We are organizing but we are running out of everything,” he told reporters. “We go to Valencia in vans, shop and come back, but here we are completely forgotten.”

Rushing water turned narrow streets into death traps and created rivers that flooded homes and businesses, leaving many uninhabitable.

Some stores were looted and authorities arrested 50 people.

Social networks have channeled the needs of those affected. Some posted images of missing people in the hope of gaining information about their whereabouts, while others launched initiatives such as “Suport Mutu” – or “Mutual Support” – that connects requests for help with people who offer that help. Others organized collections of basic goods or launched fundraisers across the country.

The role of climate change in the flood disaster in Spain

Spain's Mediterranean coast is used to autumn storms that can cause flooding, but this was the most violent flash flood in recent memory. Scientists link it to this Climate changewhich is also responsible for ever higher temperatures and droughts in Spain as well as the warming of the Mediterranean.

Human-caused climate change has doubled the chances of a storm like the flooding in Valencia this week, according to a partial analysis released Thursday by World Weather Attribution, a group of dozens of international scientists conducting research The role of global warming in extreme weather conditions.

Spain suffered from a nearly two-year drought that made flooding worse because the dry ground was so hard it could not absorb the rain.

In August 1996, flooding swept away a campsite on the Gallego River in Biescas in the northeast, killing 87 people.