Unprecedented flooding in Spain kills at least 158 people
NPRUnprecedented flooding in Spain kills at least 158 people toggle caption Alberto Saiz/AP BARRIO DE LA TORRE, Spain — Crews searched for bodies in stranded cars and sodden buildings Thursday as people tried to salvage what they could from their ruined homes following monstrous flash floods in Spain that claimed at least 158 lives, with 155 deaths confirmed in the eastern Valencia region alone. “Unfortunately, there are dead people inside some vehicles,” Spain’s Transport Minister Óscar Puente said early Thursday before the death toll spiked from 95 dead late Wednesday night. Sponsor Message “We are searching house by house,” Ángel Martínez, with a military emergency unit, told Spain’s national radio RNE from the town of Utiel, where at least six people died. "I went with the local police but we had to turn back because a tsunami of water, mud, reeds and dirt was already entering the town.” toggle caption Alberto Saiz/AP Mari Carmen Pérez said by phone from Barrio de la Torre, a suburb of Valencia city, that her phone buzzed with the flood warning after the rushing water had already forced open the front door and filled the first floor, forcing her family to flee upstairs.