By Julia Hayley
MADRID (Reuters) - Drought has turned to deluge in central Spain, leaving villages shoveling mud and wading through torrents on Friday in places where only months ago they were staring at dry river beds.
Hail and thunderstorms have battered farmland and flooded towns all over central Spain this week, covering parts of Madrid's main ringroad in water and briefly cutting off train services to major coastal cities.
The government on Friday promised emergency aid to cover damage to property and crops in the region worst hit by the floods, which came after two years of drought.
Farmers estimate that nationally several hundred thousand hectares of vines, grains and fruit trees have been damaged or totally written off.
The worst of this week's storms was one that dumped more than a year's rainfall in one day on Alcazar de San Juan, in the middle of the plains of Castilla La Mancha, south of Madrid.
"I'm looking at it now. It's devastating," said Jose Maria Onate by phone from his vineyard in nearby Alameda de Cervera.
"In the village we've had a river running down the main street for 24 hours."
Last August Onate was more concerned about the vanishing aquifer he uses to water his grapes.
Farm union Asaja said damages up to Thursday were at least 300 million euros ($400 million).
Much of the cherry crop has been destroyed in Extremadura and nearly a fifth of the vines in the prestigious Ribera del Duero region were damaged, it said.
The meteorological institute warned of heavy rains in Castilla Leon -- the biggest grain producing region -- and the north coast on Friday and Saturday, fading in intensity on Sunday.
The storm that struck Alcazar de San Juan was an unusual supercell, the most intense type of thunderstorm, the meteorological institute said.
Onate said the erosion that floodwaters caused was the worst problem.
"Vines have been left with their roots in the air. Getting the earth back can be done but it's a tremendous task."
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