UTIEL, Spain (AP) — Flash floods in Spain turned village streets into rivers, destroyed homes, hampered transportation and killed at least 95 people in the worst natural disaster to hit the European country in recent memory.

Rainstorms that began on Tuesday and continued on Wednesday caused flooding in southern and eastern Spain, stretching from Malaga to Valencia. Muddy streams Vehicles crashed through the streets at high speeds as debris and household items swirled in the water. Police and emergency services used helicopters to lift people from their homes and inflatable boats to reach drivers stranded on cars.

Emergency services in the eastern Valencia region confirmed a death toll of 92 on Wednesday. Another two deaths were reported in the neighboring Castile-La Mancha region, while one death was reported in southern Andalusia.

“Yesterday was the worst day of my life,” Ricardo Gabaldón, the mayor of Utiel, a town in Valencia, told national broadcaster RTVE on Wednesday. He said six residents died and others were missing.

“We were trapped like rats. Cars and dumpsters streamed through the streets. “The water rose to three meters (9.8 feet),” he said.

The Spanish government has declared three days of national mourning starting Thursday.

“All of Spain feels your pain for those who are looking for their loved ones,” Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said in a televised address.

Rescue workers and more than 1,100 soldiers from the Spanish emergency operations were deployed to the affected areas. The Spanish central government has set up a crisis committee to coordinate rescue efforts.

Javier Berenguer, 63, fled his bakery in Utiel when crushing water threatened to overwhelm him. He said the water column at his shop had risen to 2.5 meters (8.2 feet) and he feared his livelihood had been destroyed.

“I had to get out of a window as best I could because the water was already up to my shoulders. I took refuge with the neighbors on the first floor and spent the whole night there,” Berenguer told The Associated Press. “It cost everything. I have to throw everything out of the bakery, the freezers, ovens, everything.”

María Carmen Martínez, another Utiel resident, witnessed a harrowing rescue.

“It was terrible, terrible. There was a man clinging to a fence, falling and calling people for help,” she said. “They couldn’t help him until the helicopters came and picked him up.”

A Valencian town, Paiporta, suffered exceptional losses. Mayor Maribel Albalat told RTVE that over 30 people had died in the city of about 25,000 residents. Among them were six residents of a retirement home. News media broadcast footage of seniors in chairs and wheelchairs at a nursing home in Paiporta, some apparently screaming in fear as water rose above their knees.

“We don’t know what happened, but within 10 minutes the village was overflowing with water,” Albalat said.

Spain’s national weather service said Valencia received more rain in eight hours than in the previous 20 months and described the flooding as “extraordinary”.

Located south of Barcelona on the Mediterranean coast, Valencia is a tourist destination known for its beaches, citrus groves and as the origin of the rice dish paella. The region has gorges and small riverbeds that remain completely dry for much of the year but quickly fill with water when it rains. Many of them pass through populated areas.

As floodwaters receded, thick layers of mud mixed with trash made some streets unrecognizable.

“The neighborhood is destroyed, all the cars are on top of each other, it’s literally smashed,” Christian Viena, a bar owner in the Valencian village of Barrio de la Torre, said by phone. “Everything is a total wreck, everything is ready to be thrown away. The mud is almost 30 centimeters deep.”

Outside Vienna’s bar, people ventured out to see what they could save. Cars were piled up and the streets were full of clumps of water-soaked branches.

Spain has experienced it similar autumn storms in recent years. However, nothing compared to the devastation of the last two days, which is reminiscent of floods in Germany and Belgium in 2021, which killed 230 people.

The death toll is likely to rise as other regions have not yet reported any casualties and search operations continue in hard-to-reach locations.

“We are facing a very difficult situation,” said Territorial Policy Minister Ángel Víctor Torres. “The fact that we cannot provide any information on the number of missing people shows the extent of the tragedy.”

Spain is still recovering from a severe drought and is recording record temperatures high temperatures in recent years. Scientists assume that extreme weather events will occur more frequently probably linked to climate change. The ongoing drought has made it more difficult for the country to absorb large amounts of water.

The storms also spawned a rare tornado and an unusual hailstorm that punched holes in car windows and greenhouses.

Transport was also affected. A high-speed train with nearly 300 people on board derailed near Malaga, although rail authorities said no one was injured. High-speed train service between the city of Valencia and Madrid has been suspended, and the transport ministry said it could take up to four days to restore high-speed train service to the capital due to damage to the line. Bus and S-Bahn lines were also interrupted. Many flights were canceled on Tuesday evening, leaving around 1,500 people stranded at Valencia airport overnight. Flights resumed on Wednesday.

Football matches involving Valencia and Levante have been canceled and players from Barcelona and Madrid held a minute’s silence for flood victims before training on Wednesday.

Valencia regional president Carlos Mazón urged people to stay at home, saying travel by road was difficult due to fallen trees and destroyed vehicles. Rescue efforts were hampered by downed power lines and power outages, and regional emergency services responded to around 30,000 emergency calls, Mazón said.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told reporters in Brussels that the EU would “help coordinate rescue teams” using its Copernicus geo-surveillance satellite system.

Some residents appealed for news about their missing loved ones through social media, television and radio broadcasts.

Leonardo Enrique told RTVE that his family searched for hours for his 40-year-old son Leonardo Enrique Rivera, who was driving a van, when the rain began. His son sent a message that his van was flooded and that he had been hit by another vehicle near Ribarroja, an industrial town that is among the worst hit, Enrique said.

___

Wilson reported from Barcelona and Medrano from Madrid. Lorne Cook in Brussels contributed.