Spain's catastrophic floods by the numbers: At least 219 dead, 93 missing and billions in damage

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

The deluge left behind a landscape of devastation, especially in Valencia, the hardest-hit region. The search for the dead and missing continues, more than a week since the Oct. 29 floods hit — as well as a gargantuan cleanup and recovery effort.

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

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

Ninety-three people have been officially 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 full extent of the damage is unknown, but Spain’s Consortium for Insurance Compensation, a public-private entity that pays insurance claims for extreme risks like floods, estimates that 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, with 60% of the claims for cars and 31% for homes. Spain’s Association of Insurance Companies anticipates the flooding will break a historic record for payouts.

The Transport Ministry has so far repaired 232 kilometers (144 miles) of road and rail tracks but the highspeed train line between Valencia and Madrid is still demolished.

The central government has approved a 10.6 billion-euro ($11.6-billion) relief package for families, business and townhalls. The Valencia regional government is asking Madrid for 31 billion euros ($33 billion) in aid as well.

The drought that has hit the country for the past two years and record hot temperatures helped magnify the floods, scientists say.

Spain's meteorological agency says that 30.4 inches fell in one hour in the Valencian town of Turis, an all-time national record for rainfall set on Oct. 29. The devastated village of Chiva also received more rain in eight hours than the town had experienced in the preceding 20 months.

The storms honed in on the Magro and Turia Rivers and the Poyo canal, turning them into swift currents that swept away everything in their path. To the human eye, it looked as if a tsunami-like wave of water and mud cut a swath through the southern outskirts of the city of Valencia.

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

In all, 78 municipalities had at least one resident perish in the floods.

The emergency operation mobilized by central authorities has grown to more than 17,000 troops and police officers.

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

Thousands of ordinary citizens volunteered, with no definite estimate as to exactly how many, have helped 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 to places that were still without drinking water.

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

And at this point, no one can guess when the recovery effort will be concluded.

A volunteer organises food for victims after floods in Paiporta, Spain, Thursday, Nov. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Alberto Saiz)

A helicopter flies over a devestated area after floods in Paiporta, Spain, Thursday, Nov. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Alberto Saiz)

Volunteers cross a railway track after floods in Paiporta, Spain, Thursday, Nov. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Alberto Saiz)

Volunteers take a break at the street where they clean up the mud accumulated by the floods in Masanasa, Valencia, Spain, Thursday, Nov. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

A woman walks through the mud as she tries to arrive at her home on a still flooded street in Masanasa, Valencia, Spain, Thursday, Nov. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

A volunteer takes a break near to the house where he clears up the mud accumulated by the floods, in Masanasa, Valencia, Spain, Thursday, Nov. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

A man sits among debris after floods in Paiporta, Spain, Thursday, Nov. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Alberto Saiz)

A man prays during a mass at the San Jorge church after floods in Paiporta, Spain, Thursday, Nov. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Alberto Saiz)

People attend a mass at the San Jorge church after floods in Paiporta, Spain, Thursday, Nov. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Alberto Saiz)

People attend a mass at the San Jorge church after floods in Paiporta, Spain, Thursday, Nov. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Alberto Saiz)

Volunteers clean up the mud accumulated by the floods in Masanasa, Valencia, Spain, Thursday, Nov. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Volunteers Izan and Oriana take a break in a playground, where they clean up the mud accumulated by the floods in Masanasa, Valencia, Spain, Thursday, Nov. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

A bicycle is photographed covered in mud after the floods in Masanasa, Valencia, Spain, Thursday, Nov. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Dolores Merchan, 67, reacts in tears at her home, where she has lived all her life with her husband and three children, and which has been severely affected by the floods in Masanasa, Valencia, Spain, Thursday, Nov. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

A firefighter sweeps away mud after floods in Paiporta, Spain, Thursday, Nov. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Alberto Saiz)

Dolores Merchan, 67, reacts as she is assisted by volunteers clearing mud from her home, where she has lived all her life with her husband and three children, and which has been severely affected by the floods, in Masanasa, Valencia, Spain, Thursday, Nov. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

A nun gets her boots spray cleaned after floods in Paiporta, Spain, Thursday, Nov. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Alberto Saiz)

Volunteers make a human chain to evacuate the mud in buckets in an area still flooded with mud in Masanasa, Valencia, Spain, Thursday, Nov. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

People who have been working in the clean-up attend a mass at the San Jorge church after floods in Paiporta, Spain, Thursday, Nov. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Alberto Saiz)

Gloves and cleaning utensils hang in a window during the clean-up after the floods, in a house in Masanasa, Valencia, Spain, Thursday, Nov. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

A bathroom is photographed covered in mud after the floods in Masanasa, Valencia, Spain, Thursday, Nov. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

A couple of volunteers walk hand in hand down a muddy street in a flooded area in Masanasa, Valencia, Spain, Thursday, Nov. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Dolores Merchan, 67, reacts in tears as she is assisted by volunteers clearing mud from her home, where she has lived all her life with her husband and three children, and which has been severely affected by the floods in Masanasa, Valencia, Spain, Thursday, Nov. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Dolores Merchan, 67, looks down on her mud-splattered belongings from the house where she has lived all her life with her husband and three children, and which has been severely affected by the floods in Masanasa, Valencia, Spain, Thursday, Nov. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

WASHINGTON (AP) — A day after the audacious U.S. military operation in Venezuela, President Donald Trump on Sunday renewed his calls for an American takeover of the Danish territory of Greenland for the sake of U.S. security interests, while his top diplomat declared the communist government in Cuba is “in a lot of trouble.”

The comments from Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio after the ouster of Venezuela's Nicolás Maduro underscore that the U.S. administration is serious about taking a more expansive role in the Western Hemisphere.

With thinly veiled threats, Trump is rattling hemispheric friends and foes alike, spurring a pointed question around the globe: Who's next?

“It’s so strategic right now. Greenland is covered with Russian and Chinese ships all over the place," Trump told reporters as he flew back to Washington from his home in Florida. "We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security, and Denmark is not going to be able to do it.”

Asked during an interview with The Atlantic earlier on Sunday what the U.S.-military action in Venezuela could portend for Greenland, Trump replied: “They are going to have to view it themselves. I really don’t know.”

Trump, in his administration's National Security Strategy published last month, laid out restoring “American preeminence in the Western Hemisphere” as a central guidepost for his second go-around in the White House.

Trump has also pointed to the 19th century Monroe Doctrine, which rejects European colonialism, as well as the Roosevelt Corollary — a justification invoked by the U.S. in supporting Panama’s secession from Colombia, which helped secure the Panama Canal Zone for the U.S. — as he's made his case for an assertive approach to American neighbors and beyond.

Trump has even quipped that some now refer to the fifth U.S. president's foundational document as the “Don-roe Doctrine.”

Saturday's dead-of-night operation by U.S. forces in Caracas and Trump’s comments on Sunday heightened concerns in Denmark, which has jurisdiction over the vast mineral-rich island of Greenland.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen in a statement that Trump has "no right to annex" the territory. She also reminded Trump that Denmark already provides the United States, a fellow member of NATO, broad access to Greenland through existing security agreements.

“I would therefore strongly urge the U.S. to stop threatening a historically close ally and another country and people who have made it very clear that they are not for sale,” Frederiksen said.

Denmark on Sunday also signed onto a European Union statement underscoring that “the right of the Venezuelan people to determine their future must be respected” as Trump has vowed to “run” Venezuela and pressed the acting president, Delcy Rodriguez, to get in line.

Trump on Sunday mocked Denmark’s efforts at boosting Greenland’s national security posture, saying the Danes have added “one more dog sled” to the Arctic territory’s arsenal.

Greenlanders and Danes were further rankled by a social media post following the raid by a former Trump administration official turned podcaster, Katie Miller. The post shows an illustrated map of Greenland in the colors of the Stars and Stripes accompanied by the caption: “SOON."

“And yes, we expect full respect for the territorial integrity of the Kingdom of Denmark,” Amb. Jesper Møller Sørensen, Denmark's chief envoy to Washington, said in a post responding to Miller, who is married to Trump's influential deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller.

During his presidential transition and in the early months of his return to the White House, Trump repeatedly called for U.S. jurisdiction over Greenland, and has pointedly not ruled out military force to take control of the mineral-rich, strategically located Arctic island that belongs to an ally.

The issue had largely drifted out of the headlines in recent months. Then Trump put the spotlight back on Greenland less than two weeks ago when he said he would appoint Republican Gov. Jeff Landry as his special envoy to Greenland.

The Louisiana governor said in his volunteer position he would help Trump “make Greenland a part of the U.S.”

Meanwhile, concern simmered in Cuba, one of Venezuela’s most important allies and trading partners, as Rubio issued a new stern warning to the Cuban government. U.S.-Cuba relations have been hostile since the 1959 Cuban revolution.

Rubio, in an appearance on NBC's “Meet the Press,” said Cuban officials were with Maduro in Venezuela ahead of his capture.

“It was Cubans that guarded Maduro,” Rubio said. “He was not guarded by Venezuelan bodyguards. He had Cuban bodyguards.” The secretary of state added that Cuban bodyguards were also in charge of “internal intelligence” in Maduro’s government, including “who spies on who inside, to make sure there are no traitors.”

Trump said that “a lot” of Cuban guards tasked with protecting Maduro were killed in the operation. The Cuban government said in a statement read on state television on Sunday evening that 32 officers were killed in the U.S. military operation.

Trump also said that the Cuban economy, battered by years of a U.S. embargo, is in tatters and will slide further now with the ouster of Maduro, who provided the Caribbean island subsidized oil.

“It's going down,” Trump said of Cuba. “It's going down for the count.”

Cuban authorities called a rally in support of Venezuela’s government and railed against the U.S. military operation, writing in a statement: “All the nations of the region must remain alert, because the threat hangs over all of us.”

Rubio, a former Florida senator and son of Cuban immigrants, has long maintained Cuba is a dictatorship repressing its people.

“This is the Western Hemisphere. This is where we live — and we’re not going to allow the Western Hemisphere to be a base of operation for adversaries, competitors, and rivals of the United States," Rubio said.

Cubans like 55-year-old biochemical laboratory worker Bárbara Rodríguez were following developments in Venezuela. She said she worried about what she described as an “aggression against a sovereign state.”

“It can happen in any country, it can happen right here. We have always been in the crosshairs,” Rodríguez said.

AP writers Andrea Rodriguez in Havana, Cuba, and Darlene Superville traveling aboard Air Force One contributed reporting.

In this photo released by the White House, President Donald Trump monitors U.S. military operations in Venezuela, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla., Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026. (Molly Riley/The White House via AP)