*

Spain's deadliest floods in decades

*

Roads closed, rail services halted

*

Red alert in part of Catalonia as storm moves northeast

*

Death toll worst from floods in Spain since 1996

*

Farms battered in Valencia, a key orange producer

(Updates death toll, adds details on British victim in

paragraph 15)

By Eva Manez and David Latona

LA ALCUDIA, Spain, Oct 30 (Reuters) - At least 73 people

have been killed in the deadliest flooding to hit Spain for

three decades after torrential rain battered the eastern region

of Valencia, sweeping away bridges and buildings, local

authorities said on Wednesday.

Meteorologists said a year's rain had fallen in eight hours

in parts of Valencia on Tuesday, causing pile-ups on highways

and submerging farmland in a region that produces two-thirds of

the citrus fruit grown in Spain, a leading global exporter.

Residents in the worst-hit places described seeing people

clambering onto the roofs of their cars as a churning tide of

brown water gushed through the streets, uprooting trees and

dragging away chunks of masonry from buildings.

"It's a river that came through," said Denis Hlavaty, who

waited for rescue on a ledge in the petrol station where he

works in the regional capital. "The doors were torn away and I

spent the night there, surrounded by water that was 2 metres

(6.5-feet) deep."

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez promised to rebuild

infrastructure that had been destroyed and said in a televised

address: "For those who at this moment are still looking for

their loved ones, the whole of Spain weeps with you."

Footage shot by emergency services from a helicopter showed

bridges that had collapsed and cars and trucks piled on top of

each other on highways between flooded fields outside the city

of Valencia.

Trains to the cities of Madrid and Barcelona were cancelled

due to the flooding, and schools and other essential services

were suspended in the worst-hit areas, officials said.

Power company i-DE, owned by Europe's biggest utility,

Iberdrola, said about 150,000 clients in Valencia had no

electricity.

Emergency services in the region urged citizens to avoid all

road travel and to follow further official advice, and a

military unit specialised in rescue operations was deployed in

some places to help local emergency workers.

Some parts of Valencia such as the towns of Turis, Chiva or

Bunol recorded more than 400 mm (15 inches) of rainfall, leading

the state weather agency AEMET to declare a red alert on

Tuesday. It was lowered to amber on Wednesday as the rain eased.

There was also flooding in other parts of the country,

including the southern region of Andalusia, and forecasters

warned of more bad weather ahead as the storm moved in a

northeasterly direction.

The regional weather service in Catalonia issued a red alert

for the area around Barcelona, warning of high winds and hail,

while the AEMET state agency placed the city of Jerez in

Andalusia on red alert.

"(The floodwaters) took away lots of dogs, lots of horses,

they took away everything," said Antonio Carmona, a construction

worker and resident of Alora in the southern region.

DEADLIEST SPANISH FLOODS SINCE 1996

The death toll, which includes three people in other

regions, appeared to be the worst in Europe from flooding since

2021 when at least 185 people died in Germany.

Andalusia's regional leader Juanma Moreno said a

71-year-old British man had died in hospital of heart failure

after being rescued from his flooded home in Malaga suffering

from hypothermia.

It is the deadliest flood-related disaster in Spain since

1996, when 87 people died near a town in the Pyrenees mountains.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on X

that Europe was ready to help. "What we're seeing in Spain is

devastating," she said on X.

ASAJA, one of Spain's largest farmer groups, said on Tuesday

it expected significant damage to crops.

Spain is the world's largest exporter of fresh and dried

oranges, according to trade data provider the Observatory of

Economic Complexity, and Valencia accounts for about 60% of the

country's citrus production, according to Valencian Institute of

Agriculture Investigations.

Scientists say extreme weather events are becoming more

frequent in Europe due to climate change. Meteorologists think

the warming of the Mediterranean, which increases water

evaporation, plays a key role in making torrential rains more

severe.

"Events of this type, which used to occur many decades

apart, are now becoming more frequent and their destructive

capacity is greater," said Ernesto Rodriguez Camino, senior

state meteorologist and a member of the Spanish Meteorological

Association.