More Bodies Found in Pyrenees Flood

BIESCAS, Spain — Searchers retrieved corpses Friday that had been strewn for miles downstream from a campground in the Pyrenees mountains, and the government fended off questions about why it allowed the campsite to be built in a flood-prone ravine.

More than 70 people were swept to their deaths when flash floods roared out of the mountains Wednesday night. Authorities say about 20 others from among the about 650 campers are still missing.

Critics accused the government of criminal negligence for licensing the campsite, saying the campground should never have been established at the foot of a steep mountain ravine.

The Aragon regional government said the kind of torrential rainfall that set off the flash flood is impossible to predict. It denied that planners could have foreseen the risk.

Local officials have refused to answer questions, and there has been no comment from the owners of the campsite, located at an altitude of 2,800 feet in the mountains that form the border between France and Spain.

Grieving families Friday visited a makeshift morgue in an ice rink at the ski resort of Jaca. “It’s very hard for us right now,” said Asuncion Astariega, who left the rink after identifying the bodies of her nephew and brother-in-law.

Alejandro Aravon shuttled between his sister’s recovery room and the morgue to make arrangements for the burial of his 3-year-old niece.

“It’s all too much to understand,” he said, standing alone in the hospital as tears welled in his eyes.

Most of the victims were Spaniards, although the dead also include a Dutch couple and their two children and a French man and woman.

Police used axes and chain saws to cut through fallen trees and mounds of debris in a field a mile from the camp, uncovering four bodies.