Spanish rescue teams scoured flooded fields and stranded cars for those still missing after devastating floods in the Valencia region that killed at least 95 people, with forecasts of more bad weather prompting storm alerts further north.
Local authorities have not disclosed how many people are still unaccounted for after Europe’s deadliest floods in years, but Defence Minister Margarita Robles said on Thursday the death toll was likely to rise.
Rescuers used helicopters to winch survivors to safety in areas that were still flooded and combed through thick silt and the wreckage of vehicles in search of bodies.
Diggers and tractors equipped with water pumps were brought in to clear debris from the streets, television footage showed.
The floods in Valencia battered the region’s infrastructure, sweeping away bridges, roads, rail tracks, and buildings as rivers burst their banks.
Transport Minister Oscar Puente said about 80 km (50 miles) of roads in the eastern region were seriously damaged and impassable, while many were blocked by abandoned cars.
“Unfortunately there are dead bodies in some vehicles,” Puente told reporters, adding that it would take two to three weeks to re-establish the high-speed train connection between Valencia and Madrid.
Calm weather returned on Thursday to the hardest-hit areas around the city of Valencia, Spain’s third-largest, but the AEMET state weather agency issued its highest level of alert for the province of Castellon.
Further north in the Catalonia region, an amber alert was issued for the city of Tarragona.
Meteorologists said a year’s worth of rain had fallen in eight hours in parts of Valencia on Tuesday, causing pile-ups on highways and submerging farmland in a region that produces about two-thirds of the citrus fruit grown in Spain, a leading global exporter of oranges.
The storm that caused the torrential downpours has since moved in a northeasterly direction.
Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez visited a rescue coordination center in L’Eliana, near the city of Valencia, and urged people to stay at home due to the threat of more stormy weather.
“Right now the most important thing is to safeguard as many lives as possible,” he told reporters.
Residents described seeing people clambering onto the roofs of their cars as a churning tide of brown water gushed through the streets on Tuesday, uprooting trees and dragging away chunks of masonry from buildings.