Death toll in Valencia flood hits 158 following 8 hours of rain

Number of lives lost to the devastating flash floods in eastern Spain climbed to 158 on Thursday, with rescue teams still searching for those missing.

“There’s a total of 158 people to which must be added dozens and dozens of missing,” Angel Victor Torres, minister in charge of cooperation with Spain’s regions, told a press conference.

A year’s worth of rain fell in eight hours in parts of the Valencia region on Tuesday.

The tragedy is said to be Spain’s worst flood-related disaster in modern history, and meteorologists say human-driven climate change is making such extreme weather events more frequent and destructive.

Search and rescue operations are still ongoing for those missing. Rebuilding the damaged areas will take untold weeks or months, and for now, emergency crews are grappling with inaccessible areas that have been cut off by the damage.