Baby girl and her mother among those lost in Spain's catastrophic flooding

PAIPORTA, Spain (AP) — The mangled car in which Jorge Tarazona’s 3-year-old niece and sister-in-law perished in last week's catastrophic flooding in Spain now hangs halfway off the ragged edge of road.

His brother managed to survive, clinging to a fence. He and his family had been caught in traffic driving home to Paiporta on Valencia's southern outskirts, Tarazona said. They had no chance to escape when the tsunami-like wave quickly overflowed the nearby drainage canal and swept away everything in its path.

“They did not have time to do anything,” Tarazona told The Associated Press, a week after the Oct. 29 flash floods. “My brother was dragged away and ended up clinging to a fence." His sister-in-law "could not get out and died with her little girl.”

Tarazona had ridden a bike back to the site and taped a note on the car asking for whoever eventually removed the wreck off the side of the highway, to call him.

“It all happened so fast,” he said, tears coming to his eyes. “In half an hour the current had carried away the car. There was no time, no time. She managed to send me the location of their car hoping for a rescue.

“The next day she was found dead inside,” he said.

It's unclear if the two are included in the official toll of the 217 confirmed dead as fatalities tick up, eight days after the deadliest floods in Spain this century.

Paiporta has been labeled by Spanish media as the ground zero of the natural disaster that has also left 89 people still missing, while officials say the real figure could be higher.

Over 60 people perished in Paiporta when a wave of water rushed down the Poyo canal that cuts through its center. Frustration over the survivors’ sense of abandonment exploded in Paiporta on Sunday when a crowd greeted Spain’s royals and officials with a barrage of mud and other objects.

Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez was rushed away and the royal couple had to eventually cancel the visit after speaking to several distraught neighbors amid a chaotic scene.

The mayor of Paiporta, a middle-class community of 30,000, on Tuesday pleaded for a “higher authority” to step in and take control of her municipality because the floods had made it impossible to go on. Mayor Maribel Albalat said all the municipal buildings, from town hall to the local police, had been severely damaged and that many of the local civil servants “are in a state of shock.”

“Paiporta is a strong village, but this overwhelms out capacities as a local administration,” she said.

The air-throbbing “thup, thup, thup” of the huge, two-propeller Chinook helicopters that have flown overhead with the arrival of the army has added to the post-apocalyptic atmosphere.

The destruction, however, went far beyond Paiporta and covers a huge swath of municipalities, above all on the southern flank of Valencia city on the Mediterranean coast. Seventy-eight localities had at least one person die from the floods. Police have expanded their search to the nearby marshes and coastline, where the waters carried some away.

The residents, businesses and town councils of the affected localities can apply for financial help from a 10.6-billion-euro relief package from Spain's government. The regional Valencia government, which is being slammed for not alerting the populace of the danger in time, has asked the central government in Madrid for 31 billion euros to ensure the recovery.

Over a week later, the cleanup goes on to get rid of tons of mud and debris that clog street after street, filling thousands of ground floors, destroying living rooms and kitchens. Neighborhoods were left without shops and supermarkets after all their products were ruined. Many houses still don´t have drinking water.

An impromptu army of volunteers were the first helpers on the ground, shoveling and sweeping away the sticky brown mire covering everything, and helping to start removing pile after pile of debris that made access to cars impossible in many areas.

Authorities eventually mobilized 15,000 soldiers and police reinforcements to help firefighters search for bodies and start extracting thousands of wrecked cars strewn over streets and sunk in canal beds.

At every corner, cars are piled on top of one another or smashed into buildings, light poles, trees and bridge overpasses.

“There is still so much to do," said volunteer Juanma Baztan López, who is helping churn through the muck in Catarroja, which borders on Paiporta, in his four-wheel drive. He has helped transport doctors to people in need, deliver essential products, and tow away wrecked cars.

"It will take a year to get this back to normal,” he said.

Wilson reported from Barcelona, Spain.

A woman looks out next to flood debris in Barranco de Chiva on the outskirts of Valencia, Spain, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Alberto Saiz)

A civil guard and his dog look out onto a lagoon in their search for bodies in el Saler on the outskirts of Valencia, Spain, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024 after floods. (AP Photo/Alberto Saiz)

A man stands next to piled-up cars in an area affected by floods in Benetusser, Spain, Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

People are served hot food by volunteers from inside a vehicle after floods in Catarroja on the outskirts of Valencia, Spain, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Alberto Saiz)

Volunteers take a break while clearing mud from the streets in an area affected by floods in Paiporta, Valencia, Spain, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Sister Kelly walks after working as volunteer cleaning houses affected by floods in Paiporta, Valencia, Spain, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Tania hugs her brother-in-law Baruc after rescuing some of their belongings from their flooded house after the floods in Paiporta, Valencia, Spain, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Maria Carmen, 54, sits next to her belongings outside her house after the floods in Paiporta, Valencia, Spain, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Buckets of collected mud and water sit in the street after floods on the outskirts of Valencia, Spain, Monday, Nov. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Alberto Saiz)

Women stand at the entrance of their houses affected by flooding in Masanasa, Valencia, Spain, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Maria Munoz, 74, cleans the mud outside her house, where she was born and which was badly affected by flooding in Masanasa, Valencia, Spain, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Vero Almarche, 36, right, hugs her neighbor Maria Munoz, 74, who was born in the house where they are photographed and which was destroyed by flooding in Masanasa, Valencia, Spain, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Volunteers clean the mud of Vero Almarche's house badly affected by flooding in Masanasa, Valencia, Spain, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Jorge Tarazona attaches a poster to a car in Paiporta, Valencia, Spain, Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2024, where his three-year-old niece and sister-in-law died in last week's floods in eastern Spain. (AP Photo/Paolo Santalucia)

Jorge Tarazona stands next to a car in Paiporta, Valencia, Spain, Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2024, where his three-year-old niece and sister-in-law died in last week's floods in eastern Spain. (AP Photo/Paolo Santalucia)

Jorge Tarazona stands next to a car in Paiporta, Valencia, Spain, Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2024, where his three-year-old niece and sister-in-law died in last week's floods in eastern Spain. (AP Photo/Paolo Santalucia)

KHARKIV REGION, Ukraine (AP) — The four drones were designed to carry bombs, but instead the men of Ukraine's Khartia brigade pack them with food, water and handwarmers and launch them in darkness toward the front line, a 15-minute flight away.

The unit commander who goes by the callsign Kit, or “cat,” pilots the tiny uncrewed aircraft from a basement room he jokingly calls their Airbnb. Guided by the drone's night-vision camera, he drops the 10-kilogram (22-pound) packages one by one as close as he can to the position where as many as five infantrymen battle Russian forces in the late autumn chill. The delivery will hold them for two or three days.

That's about as far as Kit dares look into the future. He knows that the reelection of Donald Trump will change something in his life, but as far as he and other Ukrainian soldiers on the front are concerned, trying to figure out how is a game for politicians. For him, all that matters is the distance he measures in the meters (yards) that Russian forces advance or retreat in the front-line sector that is his responsibility.

“We are trying with all our might to destroy them and win back our territories, so that it does not go any further, so that there are no more destroyed cities and destroyed lives,” Kit said. “We need to focus on the present in our work and try to do it effectively in the here and now.”

But he cannot escape the sense of a gathering storm.

Russia is increasingly hitting the Kharkiv region with unstoppable, building-leveling glide bombs and swarms of drones and chipping away at territory there. Its troops are advancing in the Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions. Up to 12,000 North Korean troops have been sent to Russia's Kursk border region to help beat back Ukrainian forces there, according to U.S., South Korean and Ukrainian intelligence assessments.

Trump, who has called President Vladimir Putin “pretty smart” for invading Ukraine, has repeatedly criticized American backing of Ukraine. He characterized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as “the greatest salesman on Earth” for winning U.S. aid.

Zelenskyy was among the first world leaders to publicly congratulate Trump, and said the two discussed how to end “Russian aggression against Ukraine” when they met in September.

Between now and Trump's Jan. 20 inauguration, the Biden administration has said it will send as much aid to Ukraine as possible to help hold back Russian forces and possess a strong hand in any potential peace negotiations. But Russia is pressing just as hard for an advantage in what most believe are crucial weeks to come.

Aviator, a Khartia soldier launching the supply drones, said he can only do his job and hope for the best. His attention is fixed on how many hours remain before the coming dawn, when Russian forces will be able to spot the uncrewed aircraft and shoot them down. If his mission fails, he knows that the men he calls brothers will suffer.

“You feel you’re useful, that you are in the right place, that the lives and health of our brothers depend on your work," said Aviator, who returned to Ukraine from a job in Poland to join the army. "We’re just doing our job, we don’t have time to worry about the election.”

Tolstiy, who runs a drone repair workshop not far away, knows firsthand what happens to territory captured by Russia. A former infantryman, he fought in Bakhmut and watched the city fall to Russian forces who bombed it to rubble. He confessed that sometimes, reading the news makes him want to give up. But that's simply unthinkable.

“It’s like we’re in another world here,” he said. “When you see that your comrades are injured or killed, it motivates you.”

Lori Hinnant contributed from Kyiv.

Servicemen of Ukraine's Khartia brigade pack a Vampire drone with food and water to launch toward the frontline to Ukrainian positions near Kharkiv, Ukraine, late Thursday, Nov. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

Ukraine's Khartia brigade officer, who goes by callsign Kit, left, sits while his soldiers pilot drones in a shelter on the frontline near Kharkiv, Ukraine, late Thursday, Nov. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

Servicemen of Ukraine's Khartia brigade pilot drones in a shelter on the frontline near Kharkiv, Ukraine, late Thursday, Nov. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

Servicemen of Ukraine's Khartia brigade pack a Vampire drone with food and water to launch toward the frontline to Ukrainian positions near Kharkiv, Ukraine, late Thursday, Nov. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

A soldier of Ukraine's Khartia brigade, callsign Tolstiy, inspects a FPV drone in a drone repair workshop close to the front line in the Kharkiv region, Ukraine, Thursday, Nov. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)