'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 into the likely epicenter of Spain's deadliest natural disaster in living memory.

“We have lost everything,” Xavi Pons told The Associated Press. He said the water level was above his head inside what had been the daycare run by his wife’s family for half a century, and he pointed to the knee-high mark where the mud reached.

“I have lived here all my life. This had never happened and nobody could have imagined it would,” Pons said. “All of Paiporta is like this, it is all in ruins.”

Authorities say at least 62 people died in Paiporta, of the 211 confirmed deaths from flash floods in Spain on Tuesday and Wednesday. The majority of those deaths happened in the eastern region of Valencia, and local media have labeled Paiporta the “ground zero” of the floods.

Four days have passed since the tsunami-like floods swept through the southern outskirts of Valencia city, covering many communities with sticky, thick mud. The clean-up task ahead remains gargantuan, and the hunt for bodies continues.

Many streets in Paiporta remain impassable to all vehicles but bulldozers, stacked as they are with piles of sodden furniture and household items and countless wrecked cars.

Every foot is caked with mud. Some people wield poles to steady their step as if walking these streets is a hike through a marsh.

A washing machine rests on its side among household junk in a church square. An enormous tree trunk rests inside a store that is missing a wall. An antique chests of drawers, paintings and a teddy bear, all still identifiable among the unrecognizable flotsam trapped in the all-consuming mire.

Lidia Giménez, a school teacher, watched from her second-story apartment as the usually dry canal that divides the town — “Barranco del Poyo” — went from completely empty to overflowing within 15 minutes. She called the aftermath of the flood “a battlefield without bombs.”

And it happened without a drop of rain falling on Paiporta.

The storm had unleashed a downpour upstream. That deluge then hurled toward Paiporta and other areas closer to the Mediterranean coast that were devastated by the flash floods.

Paiporta's residents received no flood warnings from the regional government on their cellphones until two hours after the dangerous waters rushed through.

The onslaught of water widened the river bank, tearing away buildings and a pedestrian bridge, stripping the metallic handrails from another bridge and pulling vehicles into the canal. Eight wheels are the only parts that remain visible of an overturned truck sunk in Poyo's muddy bottom.

The destruction could take weeks to clean.

Thousands of volunteers walked for more than an hour from Valencia city to help the people of Paiporta, carrying buckets, brooms and shovels as they waded into the grime.

Home owner Rafa Rosellón was waiting for heavy equipment to arrive to remove two cars — one half-resting on top of the other — that were washed away by the deluge and landed outside his home, blocking the front door. He had to unscrew a metal grating and slip though a window to get inside and witness the mess.

“I can’t do anything until those cars are moved,” Rosellón said. “The government forces that could do something, either from the regional government or the national government, have not done anything to help us. It’s us, the citizens and volunteers, who are doing all the work.”

Some 2,000 soldiers are involved in post-flood emergency work — searching for survivors, helping clean up and distribute essential goods — as well as 1,800 national police officers and almost 2,500 Civil Guard gendarmes. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said Saturday that they have rescued about 4,800 people and “helped more than 30,000 people in homes, on roads and in flooded industrial estates."

Only a small contingent of soldiers was pushing mud in Paiporta on Saturday, when Sánchez promised another 5,000 soldiers and 5,000 police were on their way to eastern Spain.

Just a few doors down from where Rosellón lived, a woman sweeping muddy water from her door burst into tears when asked what she had lost.

“I can’t find my husband, so all this doesn’t matter,” she said.

Another turn revealed a chilling scene; a street filled with half a dozen cars and criss-crossed with countless reeds that before the flood had been growing nearby. A man screams from inside a house: “There’s nothing more I can do! There’s nothing more I can do!”

Associated Press writer Teresa Medrano contributed from Madrid.

Piled up cars block a street after floods in Massanassa, just outside of Valencia, Spain, Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Alberto Saiz)

Volunteers helping with the clean up operation walk by a car with the letter R painted on the window meaning it has been revised as rescue workers look for bodies after floods in Massanassa, just outside of Valencia, Spain, Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Alberto Saiz)

Food and water are given out to residents after floods in Massanassa, just outside of Valencia, Spain, Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Alberto Saiz)

Vehicles pile up on the train tracks in the aftermath of flooding caused by late Tuesday and early Wednesday storm that left hundreds dead or missing in Alfafar, Valencia region, Spain, Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024.(AP Photo/Angel Garcia)

Mud covers the area after last Tuesday and early Wednesday storm that left hundreds dead or missing in Paiporta, outskirts of Valencia, Spain, Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024.(AP Photo/Angel Garcia)

Vehicles pile up in the streets caused by late Tuesday and early Wednesday storm that left hundreds dead or missing in Alfafar, Valencia region, Spain, Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024.(AP Photo/Angel Garcia)

Thousands of volunteers show up at the City of Arts and Sciences cultural complex to be assigned work schedules to help with the clean up operation after floods in Valencia, Spain, Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Alberto Saiz)

Thousands of volunteers show up at the City of Arts and Sciences cultural complex to be assigned work schedules to help with the clean up operation after floods in Valencia, Spain, Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Alberto Saiz)

Thousands of volunteers show up at the City of Arts and Sciences cultural complex to be assigned work schedules to help with the clean up operation after floods in Valencia, Spain, Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Alberto Saiz)

Thousands of volunteers show up at the City of Arts and Sciences cultural complex to be assigned work schedules to help with the clean up operation after floods in Valencia, Spain, Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Alberto Saiz)

Volunteers wait after thousands showed up to be assigned work schedules to help with the clean up operation after floods in Valencia, Spain, Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Alberto Saiz)

Mud covers the area in the aftermath last Tuesday and early Wednesday storm that left hundreds dead or missing in Paiporta, outskirts of Valencia, Spain, Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024.(AP Photo/Angel Garcia)

Volunteers walk in the mud to help with the clean up operation after floods in Massanassa, just outside of Valencia, Spain, Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Alberto Saiz)

Vehicles pile up in the streets after flooding caused by late Tuesday and early Wednesday storm that left hundreds dead or missing in Alfafar, Valencia region, Spain, Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024.(AP Photo/Angel Garcia)

People's belongings sit in the mud after floods in Massanassa, just outside of Valencia, Spain, Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Alberto Saiz)

A pair of Americans delivered command performances halfway around the world during Thanksgiving week. One was Peter Uihlein, the former U.S. Amateur champion and two-time Walker Cup player, winning by five shots in Qatar on the Asian Tour.

The other was Ryggs Johnston, and well, some introductions might be in order.

Don't get the idea Johnston came out of nowhere when he won the Australian Open — unless Libby, Montana, and its population of 3,725 is anyone's idea of nowhere. He was named after Mel Gibson's character in “Lethal Weapon.”

The best golfer to come out of Montana?

“Hands down, Ryggs Johnston,” Jeff Dooley said with a chuckle, because the best humor is often found in truth.

Dooley is the head pro at Cabinet View Golf Club, which has 250 members who buy passes for a seven-month golf season on an 18-hole course overlooking the Cabinet Mountains, just east of Idaho and south of Canada. He watched Johnston develop and knew there was something special about the way he played, the way he scored.

“I've been saying for a long time, it's inevitable we're going to see Ryggs on TV in a tournament,” Dooley said, perhaps not realizing that moment would keep him up past midnight to see Johnston look unflappable in his three-shot win at Kingston Heath.

“Everybody was just wired, all the golf pros," Dooley said. “There was a huge text stream going across Montana.”

The best in Montana at age 24? A case can be made. The most notable tour professional from Montana was Mike Grob, who won six times on the Canadian Tour and spent one full year on the PGA Tour.

Five months into his professional career, in his second start as a European tour member, Johnston won golf's fifth-oldest championship at the Australian Open to get his name on the Stonehaven Cup along with Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Gary Player, and more recently Jordan Spieth, Rory McIlroy and Adam Scott.

The Australian Open also was must-see TV further south in Tempe, Arizona, where Arizona State coach Matt Thurmond was never more proud.

Thurmond heard all about Johnston and tried to recruit him when he was coach at Washington, only to learn about that sixth-grade project when the teacher asked students to write down their dream. Johnston's dream: “Go to ASU and play golf.”

Thurmond was hired at Arizona State in 2016 and getting Johnston became a lot easier.

Johnston never won a tournament in college but always was in the starting rotation. He was third at the NCAA Championship in 2021 as a sophomore and finished with four straight top 10s to end his career.

He spent five years at Arizona State because of the COVID-19 pandemic and made good use of his time. The Pac-12 scholar-athlete of the year as a senior, Johnston is a few courses short of a Masters' degree from ASU's Thunderbird School of Global Management.

He finished at No. 17 in the PGA Tour University ranking, which made him exempt for the Canada portion of the PGA Tour Americas schedule, and exempt into the second stage of PGA Tour qualifying this week.

Except that Johnston won't be there, all because the Sun Devil took a pitchfork in the road that involved some of Thurmond's best coaching off the course.

Johnston figured he could try all three stages of European tour Q-school and still get home in time for the second stage of PGA Tour qualifying.

“It was funny because it took me forever to get him to go to the British Amateur,” Thurmond said. “He always said, ‘I’m a U.S. guy.' But it slowly changed. He visited (David) Puig in Spain, played the European Amateur. But I couldn't believe it when he called. I told him why not? Give yourself a chance."

He made it through the first stage in France with three shots to spare. He went to Spain a month later and tied for third in the second stage, and a week later sailed through 108 holes in Spain at the final stage to earn a European tour card.

Two weeks later, he headed Down Under to make his European tour debut in the Australian PGA and tied for 43rd in a rain-shortened event, then went 1,100 miles down the coast to Melbourne for the Australian Open.

The famed Melbourne sand belt was soaked by rain, and Johnston at this point was worn out. He played 10 out of 12 weeks in Canada. He flew to France, came home, spent two more weeks in Spain enduring the pressure of Q-school, came back home and then headed to Australia.

"I really didn’t have any expectations,” Johnston said, “which probably helped me in the end.”

Johnston said he might not have thought about European tour qualifying if not for the encouragement of Thurmond. The coach feels Johnston knew the right path and only wanted to hear some confirmation.

Either way, it couldn't have worked out any better. Instead of coming back to America for the second stage of Q-school, Johnston is at the Nedbank Challenge in South Africa, with Max Homa as the defending champion against a field that includes Will Zalatoris, Corey Conners, Thriston Lawrence and Nicolai Hojgaard.

Johnston starts next year with tournaments like the Dubai Desert Classic, which features McIlroy and Jon Rahm. The victory gives him a spot in the British Open at Royal Portrush, his first major unless he can qualify for another before then.

“He's come a long, long way,” Thurmond said. “Of all the people, to think of Ryggs being in South Africa this week blows my mind.”

Still to come by the of the year is a trip home to Libby, the tiny Montana town tucked in the northwest corner that is planning a homecoming for the latest Australian Open champion.

“I’ve got a lot of messages from friends saying the whole town is watching,” Johnston said Sunday. “It’s just really cool to have that kind of support, the thing that you don’t see much other than from small towns.”

AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf

Ryggs Johnston of the United States reacts after winning the Australian Open golf championship at the Kingston Heath Golf Club in Melbourne, Australia, Sunday, Dec. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Asanka Brendon Ratnayake)

Ryggs Johnston of the United States waits to putt on the 18th green during the final round of the Australian Open golf championship at the Kingston Heath Golf Club in Melbourne, Australia, Sunday, Dec. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Asanka Brendon Ratnayake)

Ryggs Johnston of the United States kisses the Stonehaven Cup after winning the Australian Open golf championship at the Kingston Heath Golf Club in Melbourne, Australia, Sunday, Dec. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Asanka Brendon Ratnayake)

Ryggs Johnston of the United States holds the Stonehaven Cup after winning the Australian Open golf championship at the Kingston Heath Golf Club in Melbourne, Australia, Sunday, Dec. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Asanka Brendon Ratnayake)