Spain floods latest: Satellite photos show regions before and after disaster

The management of the crisis, classified as level two on a scale of three by the Valencian government, is in the hands of the regional authorities, who can ask the central government for help in mobilising resources.

At the request of Valencia’s president, Carlos Mazon, of the conservative Popular Party, socialist prime minister Pedro Sanchez announced on Saturday the deployment of 5,000 more soldiers who will join rescue efforts, clear debris and provide water and food over the weekend.

The government will also send 5,000 more national police officers to the region, Mr Sanchez said.

At present there are some 2,000 soldiers from the military emergency unit, the army’s first intervention force for natural disasters and humanitarian crises, involved in the emergency work, as well as almost 2,500 Civil Guard gendarmes – who have carried out 4,500 rescues during the floods – and 1,800 national police officers.

When many of those affected said they felt abandoned by the authorities, a wave of volunteers took to the streets to help.

A children’s daycare was ruined when a crushing wall of water swept through Paiporta, turning the Valencia municipality of 30,000 into the likely epicenter of Spain’s deadliest natural disaster in living memory.

“We have lost everything,” Xavi Pons told The Associated Press. He said the water level was above his head inside what had been the daycare run by his wife’s family for half a century, and he pointed to the knee-high mark where the mud reached.

“I have lived here all my life. This had never happened and nobody could have imagined it would,” Pons said. “All of Paiporta is like this, it is all in ruins.”

Authorities say at least 62 people died in Paiporta, of the 211 confirmed deaths from flash floods in Spain on Tuesday and Wednesday. The majority of those deaths happened in the eastern region of Valencia, and local media have labeled Paiporta the “ground zero” of the floods.

The storms concentrated over the Magro and Turia river basins and, in the Poyo riverbed, produced walls of water that overflowed river banks, catching people unaware as they went on with their daily lives, with many coming home from work on Tuesday evening.

In the blink of an eye, the muddy water covered roads and railways, and entered houses and businesses in villages on the southern outskirts of Valencia city.

Drivers had to take shelter on car roofs while residents tried to take refuge on higher ground.

Spain’s national weather service said that in the hard-hit locality of Chiva it rained more in eight hours than it had in the preceding 20 months, calling the deluge “extraordinary”.

When the authorities sent the alert to mobile phones warning of the seriousness of the phenomenon and asked people to stay at home, many were already on the road, working or covered in water in low-lying areas or garages, which became death traps.

On Friday, the mass spontaneous arrival of volunteers complicated access for professional emergency workers to some areas, prompting authorities to devise a plan on how and where to deploy them.

Rafael Armero, 19, who was in Alfafar, a suburb of Valencia, said on Saturday: “I have been going around the town for three days helping everyone who needs it. We have a backpack full of food and water for anyone who needs it.”

More than 90 per cent of the households in Valencia had regained power on Friday, utility Iberdrola said, though thousands still lacked electricity in cut-off areas that rescuers struggled to reach.

On Friday, the mass spontaneous arrival of volunteers complicated access for professional emergency workers to some areas, prompting authorities to devise a plan on how and where to deploy them.

Rafael Armero, 19, who was in Alfafar, a suburb of Valencia, said on Saturday: “I have been going around the town for three days helping everyone who needs it. We have a backpack full of food and water for anyone who needs it.”

More than 90 per cent of the households in Valencia had regained power on Friday, utility Iberdrola said, though thousands still lacked electricity in cut-off areas that rescuers struggled to reach.

Rainstorms started on Tuesday (29 October) and continued into Wednesday. In the aftermath of the floods, cars have been piled on the street surrounded by a sea of debris from damaged buildings and structures.

Here is the latest on the situation in Spain and what you need to know about travel.

The worst of the storm is over in Majorca despite much of the island being hit by torrential rain on Friday night, according to local media reports.

Javier Bonet, the first deputy mayor of Majorcan capital Palma, urged locals and tourists to only leave their homes if “absolutely necessary” on Friday.

“We are not on red alert, but it is essential to warn the population to avoid greater risks,” he added.

But the Mallorca Daily Bulletin reports that the “storm is subsiding” and the “emergency services believe that the worst of the cold snap has passed”.

Emergency services still advise significant caution as rain is still possible on Saturday.