The Spanish government announced this Saturday that it will send 10,000 additional soldiers and police for the search for missing people and distribution of aid in devastated areas by the floods, the “largest natural disaster in recent history”, which leaves at least 213 dead.
“Today 4,000 additional troops from military units will arrive in the province of Valencia and (…) first thing tomorrow morning the remaining 1,000 military personnel will arrive,” who will join the 2,500 soldiers already in the area, the president announced. of the government, Pedro Sánchez.
5,000 police and civil guards will also be deployed, doubling the agents already present, to guarantee security and prevent looting, which has resulted in 82 arrests, Sánchez said in a message from the Moncloa Palace, after chairing a meeting of the security committee. crisis.
The socialist leader described this event as the “largest natural disaster in the recent history” of Spain and “the second flood that has claimed the most victims in Europe so far this century.”
Photo: AFP
They report 213 deaths
According to a latest report from the emergency services released on Saturday night, the Floods have left at least 213 dead210 in the Valencia region (east), two in Castilla-La Mancha (center) and one in Andalusia (south).
The government warns that the toll will increase, since the number of missing people remains high, especially because there are still bodies trapped among the mountains of cars that are piled up on roads or in parking lots.
Tuesday’s storms dumped in a few hours an amount of water equivalent to what falls in a year. The floods destroyed bridges, swept away houses and swept away hundreds of vehicles, which now make it difficult for emergency services to travel.
The answer “is not enough”
Faced with the growing desperation of the population, who continues to search for their loved ones or cry out for water or food, Sánchez admitted to being “aware that the answer that is being given is not enough“.
Likewise, the regional president of Valencia, Carlos Mazónwhich has received criticism for the slowness in aid or for the delay in sending alerts to the population on Tuesday, announced on Saturday night a series of measures to rebuild infrastructure, guarantee housing for those affected and avoid epidemiological risks after the floods.
“I know that we are going through the worst moment in our history in our country, a moment of a magnitude that no one could imagine, we are facing the challenge of our lives and together we are going to solve it,” said Mazón.
“Thanks to the people who have come to help us, all of them, because on the part of the authorities“Nobody,” said Estrella Cáceres indignantly, in the town of Alfafar, where neighbors continued this Saturday removing mud from their houses with shovels, without the presence of the army, an AFP journalist confirmed.
“Politicians promise a lot and then help comes when it comes,” said a resigned Mario Silvestre, an 86-year-old resident of the town of Chiva, with dozens of houses destroyed, and where soldiers had not arrived this Saturday either.
“Unprecedented” catastrophe
Sánchez guaranteed that the government “is ready” to continue sending resources to Valencia.
Spain has already begun “the procedures to request help from the European solidarity fund,” added the president of the government, who will visit the affected areas with the kings of Spain on Sunday.
The leader was pleased that 94% of the electricity supply and half of the telephone lines in the affected towns have already been recovered and recalled more than 2,000 vehicles “and hundreds of tons of mud and debris“, which has allowed streets and highways to reopen.
Precisely, one of the army’s priorities, in addition to the search for missing people, is to reopen roads to allow the delivery of aid.
“The magnitude of this catastrophe is unprecedented,” Transport Minister Óscar Puente told the newspaper El País.
The displays of solidarity continued this Saturday, particularly in Valencia, where thousands of people headed on foot with shovels and brooms for the second consecutive day to the affected towns.
The Valencia government decreed restrictions on the movement of individuals through the affected areas during the weekend, to avoid hindering the work of the rescue teams.
