Death toll in Spanish floods rises to 205 as rescue efforts continue

Emergency services are continuing search and rescue operations, with more fatalities expected to be confirmed in the coming hours.

MADRID, Nov. 1 (Xinhua) -- The death toll from the flash floods devastating parts of east and southern Spain rose to 205 on Friday, according to the Center of Coordinated and Integrated Operations in the Valencian region.

Since Thursday, 50 additional fatalities have now been confirmed, bringing the total tally to 202 in the Valencian region. Three more deaths were recorded in neighboring Castilla-La Mancha and the southern region of Andalusia.

Emergency services are continuing search and rescue operations, with more fatalities expected to be confirmed in the coming hours. The Valencian regional government has announced that the Valencia Congress Center would be used as a temporary mortuary to accommodate the victims' bodies.

The flash flood suddenly struck east and southern Spain on Tuesday night and into Wednesday morning, bringing some areas over a year's worth of rainfall within four to five hours.

Spain's Minister of Defense Margarita Robles confirmed on Friday that another 500 members of the armed forces are being deployed to assist in the affected regions.

These troops will join the 1,200 already deployed, with the aid of 400 vehicles and 15 search and rescue helicopters. "The army has been here since the first day and it will continue to help … there are places where there are cars stacked one on top of the other and people and families could be trapped inside," noted Robles.

On Friday, the electrical company Iberdrola confirmed that over 23,000 households remain without power, an improvement from the initial 130,000 homes affected by outages at the onset of the disaster.

Spain's Ministry of Transport and Sustainability has announced over 25 million euros (27.18 million U.S. dollars) of emergency funds for immediate repairs on the most severely impacted roads.

Approximately half of this amount will go toward repairing a viaduct on the A7 highway, which partially collapsed in the flooding, with significant damage also reported on the N-330 and N-322 highways.

On Thursday, Spain's Minister for Transport Oscar Puente stated that the high-speed rail link between Madrid and Valencia would likely be out of service for approximately three weeks due to the collapse of two tunnels on the route. Around 80 km of local railway lines have also been destroyed by the floods.

It was confirmed on Friday that the MotoGP race scheduled for late November at the Cheste racetrack outside Valencia had been canceled due to extensive flood damage to the circuit and surrounding areas. In addition, all sporting events in the Valencia region, including the La Liga match between Valencia and Real Madrid, have been postponed as Spain observes three days of official mourning. ■