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Spain mounts biggest peacetime disaster recovery operation

STORY: Four days after torrential rains swept the eastern region of Valencia and the death toll from Spain’s deadliest flash floods continues to rise.And with dozens of people still unaccounted for, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Saturday that it will likely increase further.“The situation we are living in is tragic. It is dramatic. We are almost certainly talking about the most serious flooding our continent has seen so far this century. And I am aware that the response that is being given is not enough.”Sanchez said the number of people killed has now passed 209.That was the number killed in floods in Romania in 1970.Spain’s tragedy is now Europe’s worst flood-related disaster since at least 500 people died in Portugal in 1967.Meanwhile, volunteers flocked to Valencia’s City of Arts and Sciences center for the first coordinated clean-up organized by regional authorities. The venue has been turned into the nerve center for the operation.The storm triggered a new weather alert in the Balearic Islands, Catalonia and Valencia, where rains are expected to continue during the weekend.Scientists say extreme weather events are becoming more frequent in Europe, and elsewhere, due to climate change. Meteorologists think the warming of the Mediterranean, which increases water evaporation, plays a key role in making torrential rains more severe.