There are already 211 deaths due to the floods caused by DANA in Valencia, Spain

The Government announced this Saturday, November 2, that it will send 10,000 additional soldiers and police to search for missing people and distribute aid in areas devastated by floods. the “largest natural disaster in recent history” of Spain, which leaves at least 211 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 presiding over a meeting of the crisis committee.

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The socialist leader, who described this event as the “greatest natural disaster in the recent history” of Spain and “the second flood that has claimed the most victims in Europe so far this century”, raised the number of deaths to 211, the vast majority in the Valencia region, in the east of the country.

The Government warns that the balance will increase, since the number of missing people remains highespecially since 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 the transit of emergency services difficult.

Severe problems and shortcomings: collapsed services

Faced with the growing desperation of the population, who continue to look for their loved ones or cry out for water or food, Sánchez admitted to being “aware that the response that is being given is not enough.”

“I know that there are problems and severe shortcomings, that there are still collapsed services, municipalities buried in mud,” said Sánchez, who nevertheless sent a message of hope and asked the Spaniards write “one more chapter to the history of overcoming and resistance that is the history of our nation.”

In the towns of Alfafar and Sedaví, in the metropolitan belt of Valencia, residents continued this Saturday removing mud from their houses with shovels, without the presence of the Army yet, an AFP journalist confirmed.

“Politicians promise a lot and then the help arrives when it arrives,” said Mario Silvestre, resigned. an 86-year-old resident of the town of Chiva, with dozens of houses destroyed, and where soldiers had not arrived this Saturday either.

The president guaranteed that the government “is ready” to continue sending the Valencia authorities the resources they request, while announcing that Spain has already begun “the procedures to request help from the European solidarity fund.”

He was pleased that 94% of the electricity supply and half of the telephone lines in the affected towns have already been recovered and more than 2,000 vehicles have been removed. “and hundreds of tons of mud and debris”, which has allowed streets and highways to reopen.

AFP

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.

Help and solidarity between neighbors

The displays of solidarity continue 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.

“Yesterday (Friday) we brought tons of food and water to the most affected municipalities (…) It is true that all the neighbors who are affected are demanding more help,” the vice president of the Valencia region, Susana Camarero, told reporters. . “It is logical that they demand more help, but there has not been a lack of help,” he said.

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.