MADRID (AP) — Catastrophic torrential rains that overflowed normally dry rivers and canals in eastern Spain last week caused flash floods that submerged entire communities and killed dozens of people.

The flood left behind a Landscape of devastation, especially in Valenciathe most affected region. The search for the dead and missing continues, more than a week after the floods of October 29, as well as a gigantic cleanup and recovery effort.

Here’s a look at Spain’s deadliest natural disaster of the century, in numbers:

At least 219 people have died and 93 are missing

The historic floods caused 219 deaths, 211 of them in the Valencian Community alone. Another seven people died in neighboring Castilla La Mancha and one more in southern Andalusia.

Officially, 93 people have been declared missing, but authorities admit that the real number could be higher. Another 54 bodies remain unidentified. In total, 36,605 people have been rescued, according to authorities.

The cost of damages is in the billions.

The full extent of the damage is unknown, but Spain’s Insurance Compensation Consortium, a public-private entity that pays insurance claims for extreme risks such as floods, estimates it will spend at least 3.5 billion euros ($3.8 billion) in compensation.

The consortium has received 116,000 insurance claims for flood damage, of which 60% are for cars and 31% for homes. The Association of Insurance Companies of Spain predicts that the floods will break a historical record for compensation.

The Transport Ministry has so far repaired 232 kilometers (144 miles) of roads and railways, but the high-speed train line between Valencia and Madrid is still demolished.

The central government approved an aid package of 10.6 billion euros ($11.6 billion) for families, businesses and municipalities. Valencia’s regional government is also asking Madrid for 31 billion euros ($33 billion) in aid.

Record rains triggered the disaster

The drought that has plagued the country for two years and the record high temperatures helped magnify the floodsscientists say.

Spain’s meteorological agency says 30.4 inches fell in one hour in the Valencian city of Turís, a national rainfall record set on October 29. chiva town It also received more rain in eight hours than the city had experienced in the previous 20 months.

The storms hit the Magro, Turia and Poyo canal rivers, turning them into rapid currents that devastated everything in their path. To the human eye, it looked as if a tsunami-like wave of water and mud ripped open a swath on the southern outskirts of the city of Valencia.

The European Space Agency said that based on satellite images captured on October 31, the water covered an area of ​​15,633 hectares (38,600 acres). About 190,000 people were directly affected, the agency said.

In total, in 78 municipalities at least one resident died due to the floods.

More than 17,000 soldiers and police, and an army of volunteers

The emergency operation mobilized by the central authorities has increased to more than 17,000 soldiers and police.

The operation includes 8,000 soldiers – 2,100 of them belonging to emergency military units specialized in disaster response – along with an additional 9,200 police officers from other parts of Spain.

Thousands of ordinary citizens volunteered, with no definitive estimate of exactly how many, helping from day one with the cleanup effort.

The government said that in the first week after the floods, authorities restored electricity to 147,000 homes and distributed some 178,000 bottles of water in places that still did not have drinking water.

What we still don’t know

Spanish authorities have yet to say how many calls about missing people they received, give an estimate of property damage or publish an estimate of how much land was devastated.

And at this point, it’s anyone’s guess when recovery efforts will conclude.

___ Associated Press writer Joseph Wilson in Barcelona, ​​Spain, contributed to this report.