VALENCIA, Spain -- Torrential rains spawned massive floods that cracked a dam Wednesday, forcing 100,000 people to flee southern towns inundated by 6 feet of water. At least eight people drowned.
The Valencia governor ordered 10 townships along the Rio Jucar river evacuated as the flood cracked holes in the Tous dam, 30 miles inland from the Mediterranean cost and swept the marsh land between the dam and the sea.
Navy helicopters picked up survivors from rooftops and trees. Frogmen searched the flooded streets of Alicante for possible victims.
In Alcira, one of the evacuated towns, a hydroelectric plant caught fire when flood water shortcircuited its lines. In Cofrentes, a nuclear power plant was cut off by the water with 2,000 workers trapped inside.
Six feet of water filled streets in Alicante, south of Valencia, driving frightened people to the rooftops. At least eight people drowned, officials said.
Telephone and power lines were cut in Alicante and travelers leaving the city said it looked 'like a ghost city' with candles burning in windows.
Into the early morning Thursday, national radio kept its airways open for emergency calls to the evacuees, urging calm and relaying official orders.
Interior Minister Juan Jose Roson, who accompanied Prime Minister Leopoldo Calvo Sotelo to the area from Madrid, said 'the situation is less critical than we thought.'
He said that 100,000 people were safely removed from low-lying towns below the cracked dam. Water levels in the reservoir were receding, he said, but more rain was forecast Thursday.
A special train loaded with clothes, food, blankets and radio equipment for salvage workers left Madrid heading for the flooded area.
The rains began early Wednesday and swept the Costa Blanca from Valencia south to Alicante, inland to Cordoba and across to the Canary Islands in the Atlantic.
Damage was extensive but officials could give no immediate monetery estimate. The storms, tapering off at midday, brought water to some areas that have been suffering drought for three years.
Floodwaters also made impassable the railroads and highways from Madrid to Valencia and Cartagena. The national airline canceled flights in and out of Valencia airport, where water stood knee-deep on runways.
'It began raining after midnight and it just poured down,' said a fire brigade official in Alicante, reached by telephone. 'We had to go save an old woman from drowning as the water was rising up to the roof of her cottage.'
