Emergency teams in Spain continue to search for dozens of people still missing from the worst flooding disaster in generations.
More than 200 people are known to have died, most of them in the Valencia region, but the death toll is expected to rise further.
Floods destroyed bridges, covered towns in mud, and left communities without water, food, or electricity.
Some residents say more lives could have been saved if local authorities had warned of the risk of flooding sooner.
Among them is Juan Gonzalez, who lives in the town of Aldaia in Valencia. He told the BBC that the losses there were devastating.
“This is a flash flood prone area. It’s outrageous that our local government knew what was coming and did nothing,” he said.
Another local resident, Augustine, said the apartment he lived in with his wife and children was completely flooded and he had to move in with his parents.
The Civil Protection Department, overseen by the local government, issued an emergency alert on the phones of people in and around Valencia just after 20:00 local time (19:00 GMT) on Tuesday, by which time the flooding had rapidly subsided. . It is increasing in many regions and in some cases is already causing havoc.
Questions remain about the timing of the warning and whether Spain has an adequate warning system for natural disasters.
Mireia, who lives near some of the devastation in Valencia, said people were “completely unprepared.”
“Many people were in their cars but couldn’t get out,” she said. “They just drowned in water.”
Thousands of volunteers are currently assisting the Spanish army and emergency services in rescue and clean-up operations, and Valencian regional president Carlos Mazon said more troops would be sent in.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez thanked the volunteers on social media, calling them “an example of the unity and boundless dedication of Spanish society.”
He vowed that the government would take all measures to help those affected by the disaster.
In the devastated town of Paiporta, where more than 60 deaths have been reported, residents have complained that aid is arriving too slowly.
“We don’t have enough firefighters and the shovels haven’t arrived,” Paco Clemente, a 33-year-old pharmacist, told AFP as he helped clear mud from a friend’s house.
Dozens of people have been arrested on suspicion of looting, and one Ardaya resident told AFP he had witnessed thieves snatching goods from abandoned supermarkets as “people are a bit desperate”.
ReutersMeanwhile, Spanish authorities have extended a red alert for heavy rain on the southern coast.
This includes the Huelva region, which has already been hit hard by heavy rains. Two months’ worth of rain fell in just 10 hours in Cartaya.
There is a warning that further heavy rain is possible into Saturday.
One of the contributing factors to the disaster was the lack of rainfall throughout the year, which meant that the ground in many areas of eastern and southern Spain could no longer absorb rainwater effectively.
Climate warming is also likely to have contributed to the severity of flooding.
In a preliminary report, World Weather Attribution (WWA), an international group of scientists investigating the effects of global warming on extreme weather events, predicts that the amount of rainfall hitting Spain will increase by 12% due to climate change. However, it was revealed that the weather events experienced were twice as many. probably.
