Vigilante groups, angry at authorities' response to Spain's worst flood disaster in decades, have taken to the streets of the Valencian suburb of Paiporta to prevent what they say are widespread robberies and looting after dark.

Most everything else in the daycare — the cradles, the highchairs, the toys — was ruined when a crushing wall of water swept through Paiporta, turning the Valencia municipality of 30,000 into the likely epicenter of Spain's deadliest natural disaster in living memory.

The city on the southern outskirts of Valencia was devastated by a sudden wave of mud almost 2 meters high, on the night of October 29. At least 62 people perished. Tales of tragedy and acts of courage intertwine in a community in a state of shock.