A soldier from the specialized rescue unit shook his head. "You can't be prepared for something like this." The man had just spent long minutes lying between three stacked cars, crushed along with a dozen others against a small concrete bridge spanning a drainage canal on the outskirts of Chiva, one of the towns hardest hit by flooding in the Valencia region. Their work was dangerous and exhausting, as they had to check the interior of each vehicle, some of which were submerged and others half-buried under debris. A crane tried to pull the cars up, but to no avail. A huge bulldozer took over to remove them. All night long, soldiers probed the canal mud with poles.

The operation took place two kilometers upstream from Chiva, 280 meters above sea level. This town experienced its heaviest rainfall on Tuesday, October 29, to the west of Valencia: Over 40 centimeters of rain fell in a few hours, the equivalent of an entire year's rainfall. The ground was unable to absorb such a volume and the water poured down from the hills into this town of 16,000 inhabitants, then towards Valencia and the sea, claiming more than 200 victims according to the latest provisional toll. The damage resembled that of an avalanche, so powerful that the flood carried debris of all kinds, tearing up cobblestones from streets, asphalt from roads, cinder blocks from walls, stones from fields, earth, tree trunks, and everything else that society and consumer culture have produced, from washing machines to cars and furniture.

In Chiva, as in hundreds of similar sites, the search for missing persons was taking place under extremely difficult conditions. No official number of missing persons has been released, but there are probably many. The city's industrial zone took the full brunt of the wave, even though the warehouses are located several hundred meters from the Barranco del Gallo, a small river which, for a few hours, was transformed into a terrifying force of destruction and death.

'Mountains of cars'

The creek overflowed its banks, destroying everything over several hectares. The railroad tracks were literally twisted. Vehicles were scattered in the neighboring fields, among the olive trees, creating an apocalyptic scene. "Cars are still piled up by the hundreds in the mud. There are mountains and mountains of cars. Many will be empty, but it's likely that others, clearly, are full," tearfully explained Chiva Mayor Amparo Fort on public radio on Friday morning.

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