What to know about the unprecedented floods that killed more than 200 in Spain

VALENCIA, Spain (AP) — In a matter of minutes, flash floods caused by heavy downpours in eastern Spain swept away almost everything in their path. With no time to react, people were trapped in vehicles, homes and businesses. Many died and thousands of livelihoods were shattered. A...

A week after Spain's floods, families hold out hope that loved ones are not among the dead

SEDAVI, Spain (AP) — Francisco Murgui went out to try to salvage his motorbike when the water started to rise. He never came back. One week after catastrophic flooding devasted eastern Spain, María Murgui still holds out hope that her father is alive and among the...

Spain approves 10.6 billion-euro relief package after devastating floods that killed over 200 people

Heavy rains in Barcelona disrupt rail service as troops search for more flood victims in Valencia

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Continuing storms in eastern Spain that led to massive flooding last week and killed at least 217 people, mostly near Valencia, dumped rain on Barcelona on Monday, prompting authorities to suspend commuter rail service. Spanish Transport Minister Óscar...

Spain's king stood his ground under a mud barrage. What will the iconic moment mean for his reign?

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Mud splattered the cheek of Spain's monarch as survivors of catastrophic floods unleashed their fury in a barrage of muck and mire. Felipe VI took it, literally, on the chin, and his determination to stay and speak to the enraged crowd could redefine his reign. ...

PHOTO COLLECTION: Spain Floods

Spain flood survivors hurl mud at the royals and top government officials

PAIPORTA, Spain (AP) — A crowd of enraged survivors hurled clots of mud left by storm-spawned flooding at the Spanish royal couple on Sunday during their first visit to the center of their nation's deadliest natural disaster in living memory. Spain's national broadcaster reported...

Crashing waves in a hilltop village, a night of terror from Spain's floods

CHIVA, Spain (AP) — Irene Cuevas will never forget the sound of the waves crashing below her apartment’s balcony. If only there had been a flash of lightning in the darkness to let her glimpse what sounded like a roaring sea. “It was a constant fear because we...

'It is all in ruins.' The shattered lives of Paiporta at the epicenter of Spain's floods

PAIPORTA, Spain (AP) — The pictures of the smiling toddlers on the wall somehow survived. Most everything else in the daycare — the cradles, the highchairs, the toys — was ruined when a crushing wall of water swept through Paiporta, turning the Valencia municipality of 30,000...

‘The pictures, they look at you.’ A stroll with novelist John Banville through Spain's Prado Museum

MADRID (AP) — It’s the eyes peering from the canvases that get him, their gaze piercing the boundary between art and life. That’s why acclaimed Irish novelist John Banville prefers to visit Spain’s Prado Museum during its opening hours — even though he's been invited to...