'What should have been a road was an ocean'

A British teacher living outside Valencia has described how deadly floods swept through her home and destroyed everything on the ground floor.

Annabelle Reece, 50, who moved to Spain from Ashford in Kent 23 years ago, had to hide in her car as "hailstones the size of fists" fell during a destructive storm on Tuesday.

Ms Reece, who sheltered in her car for four hours, said: "What should have been a road was an ocean".

More than 200 people have been killed in Spain's worst flooding disaster this century, and the search for an unknown number of missing people continues.

Ms Reece said the flooding had left a pile of rubble "a metre high" outside her home in the town of Godelleta.

The teacher said she was desperate to get home after work to her two 10-month-old golden retriever puppies.

She said: "I was driving over the mountain, which was difficult as it was collapsing.

"I had to abandon my car and walk the rest of the way and wade through a river to get home."

She could not open her front door because the entrance was blocked by furniture and mud.

However, she was relieved to see her dogs had climbed to safety on her home's first floor.

For the past week she has had no running water and has been reliant on neighbours and friends for food and washing facilities.

She said: "Everything on the ground floor is damaged.

"You clean something and then you just realise that it's full of mud and not salvageable."

Ms Reece said there has been an outpouring of support from volunteers in the area, who have helped to clear away the thick layers of mud and debris that still cover houses, streets and roads.

She said: "We've had friends, family, people that we know, people that we don't know coming to help."

But she said the supermarkets were completely empty.

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