The Spanish authorities, in their latest tally today, announced that at least 217 people died in floodsspecifically 213 in the region of Valencia alone, three in Castilla-la-Mancha, where this morning the lifeless body of a seventy-year-old woman who had been missing since Tuesday was found, and one in Andalusia.

Among the victims of these floods are two Chinese citizens, according to the Chinese embassy in Madrid. Two others are reported as missing.

Authorities know the toll is expected to rise. “There are still flooded ground floors, warehouses, basements, parking areas that need to be cleaned and it is expected that people dead are in these areas,” warned Transport Minister Oscar Puente.

According to the minister, the tally changed a little in the last 48 hours, because the rescue services initially explored “the most accessible areas”, which are “on the surface”.

In the Vatican, Pope Francis he said today “let’s pray for Valencia and the other people in Spain who are suffering so much at this time”.

The scenes of near-riots that took place in Paiporta can be explained by the fact that on the ground, the population remains faced with a dramatic situation, with infrastructure damaged or out of order and piles of cars and debris on the road.

“It’s like the end of the world,” Elena Dana Daniela, owner of a restaurant-bar in the city of Chiva, told AFP. Still in shock five days after the storm, she says people who were trapped “were asking for help and there was nothing we could do. It drives you crazy. We’re looking for answers and we can’t find them.”

As the rain began to fall tonight at Valencia and the sky became increasingly cloudy, and heavier, the Catalan authorities decided as a precaution to restrict traffic and close schools in several locations in the southern part of this region.