ALFAFAR, Spain - Spanish rescuers opened a temporary morgue in a convention center and battled to reach areas still cut off on Friday as the death toll from catastrophic floods rose to 205 people in Europe's worst weather disaster in five decades.
In Valencia, the eastern region that bore the brunt of the devastation, at least 202 people have died, regional authorities said. Three have died in Castilla La Mancha and Andalusia.
The number of dead is now almost level with the 209 who died during heavy floods in Romania in 1970. Floods in Portugal in 1967 killed nearly 500 people.
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Some 500 soldiers were deployed to search for people who are still missing and help survivors of the storm, which triggered a fresh weather alert in Huelva in southwestern Spain.
The death toll is likely to keep rising, with dozens of people still not accounted for, Angel Victor Torres, minister in charge of cooperation with Spain's regions, told a press conference late on Thursday.
With about 75,000 homes still without electricity, firefighters were siphoning petrol from cars that had been abandoned in the floods to power generators to get domestic supplies back on.
"We're going from car to car looking for any petrol we can find," said one firefighter who had travelled to Valencia from the southern region of Andalusia to assist rescue efforts, carrying a plastic tube and empty bottles to collect the petrol from the cars' tanks.
READ MORE: Spain flash floods kill at least 51 people in Valencia region
In the same neighborhood of La Torre, she said, a 45-year-old woman was also found dead in her home.
Thousands of people carrying bags or pushing shopping trolleys could be seen on Thursday crossing a pedestrian bridge over the Turia River from La Torre into Valencia city center to stock up on essential supplies such as toilet paper and water.
Opposition politicians accused the central government in Madrid of acting too slowly to warn residents and send in rescue teams, prompting the Interior Ministry to say regional authorities were responsible for civil protection measures.
"Those people wouldn't have died if they had been warned in time," Laura Villaescusa, a neighbor and manager of a local supermarket, told Reuters.
A year of rain fell in just eight hours on Tuesday night, destroying roads, railtracks and bridges as rivers burst their banks.
