Weather warnings are in force across swathes of Spain as further storms approach on the heels of devastating flooding which has claimed at least 158 lives – making it the country’s worst natural disaster in living memory.
Prime minister Pedro Sanchez has warned that the devastation caused by flash flooding is “not finished” as he declared Valencia a “disaster zone” on Thursday. Urging residents to remain in their homes, he said: “Right now the most important thing is to safeguard as many lives as possible.”
Cities such as Valencia and Malaga were inundated this week after nearly a year’s worth of rain – close to half a metre – fell in just eight hours in some areas, leaving residents “trapped like rats” in homes and cars, as described by one desperate local mayor recalling the chaos.
As volunteers engage in a huge clean-up effort after the floods swept away bridges and deposited cars and other debris in piled heaps on streets thick with mud, Spain’s transport minister Oscar Puente said rescue workers were facing the task of recovering bodies believed to still be trapped in vehicles.
But further extreme weather is forecast, prompting further weather warnings in large parts of the country on Thursday.
Calm weather returned to the hardest-hit areas around the city of Valencia, but the AEMET state weather agency issued its highest level of alert for the province of Castellon, warning of “very strong storms” and urging people to avoid the area.
Further north in the Catalonia region, an amber alert was issued for the city of Tarragona, which lies just 50 miles southwest of Barcelona.
Lesser warnings for heavy rainfall were also issued along much of the country’s western border with Spain, running from the south coast to close to Avila in the north.
Those warnings, of up to 60mm of rain in 12 hours, cover an area spanning around 150 miles from east to west, including the popular tourist destinations of Seville and Cadiz.
“This storm front is still with us,” Mr Sanchez said on Thursday. “Stay home and heed the official recommendation and you will help save lives.”
As search and rescue efforts continued, the death toll from the floods continued to rise on Thursday, soaring from 95 to 158. Of those, 155 were reported in the Valencia region. Two fatalities were reported in the neighbouring Castilla-La Mancha region and one in southern Andalusia.
Read our liveblog on the floods for the latest updates
The greatest pain was concentrated in Paiporta, a community of around 25,000 next to Valencia city where mayor Maribel Albalat said on Thursday that 62 people had died.
While the most suffering was inflicted on municipalities near the city of Valencia, the storms unleashed their fury over huge swaths of the south and eastern coast of the Iberian peninsula.
