Editor’s note: This story has been updated to reflect the current death toll.
A storm battered Spain’s Mediterranean coast on Wednesday, causing flash flooding in the La Alcudia region that has killed over 90 people and left others injured and missing.
According to meteorologists, rain from the storm wasn’t simply heavy — it was absolutely torrential. A year’s worth of rain fell in Valencia over the course of eight hours, Reuters reported. The resulting floods are the worst to hit the country since flooding in a Pyrenees mountain town in 1996 killed 87 people.
Flooding overwhelmed the region so quickly that residents were left stranded on top of cars and buildings, with one man even taking shelter on top of a gas station ledge, per Reuters. Others were trapped on first floors, in basements and in cars on roadways with nowhere to go as floodwaters rose.
Authorities worked through the night to locate and rescue people stranded by the flooding using dinghies in flooded roadways. Rescue efforts are hampered, though, by a lack of accessibility.
Valencia’s regional leader, Carlos Mazon, told the public, “If (emergency services) have not arrived, it’s not due to a lack of means or predisposition, but a problem of access,” per Reuters.
Some areas, he said, are “absolutely impossible” to reach. Mazon advised people in the region to avoid road travel as much as possible.
Spanish Defense Minister Margarita Robles said, per CNN, that members of the military are aiding rescue efforts after an “unprecedented phenomenon.”
The search will continue throughout the week as residents mount considerable cleanup efforts, but danger lingers. Spain’s meteorological agency, AEMET, warned of heavy rains continuing in eastern and southern Spain for the remainder of the week.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez addressed those affected by the flooding, “For those who at this moment are still looking for their loved ones, the whole of Spain weeps with you.” He will visit Valencia on Thursday.
Beginning Thursday, the country will observe three days of mourning in honor of the people killed by the floods.
An increase in devastating climate-related flooding, heat and fire incidents in recent years have left European countries reeling.
The state’s senior meteorologist, Ernesto Rodriguez Camino, said, “Events of this type, which used to occur many decades apart, are now becoming more frequent and their destructive capacity is greater,” per Reuters.