Cars and a campervan lie scattered on a railway track after being washed away in recent flash floods in the Alfafar municipality of Valencia, Spain, on November 1, 2024. , Photo Credit: Getty Images
Rescue workers raised the death toll from Spain’s worst floods in a generation to 205 on Friday (Nov 1, 2024) and fears grew for dozens of missing people as hopes of finding survivors faded.
The floods that began Tuesday (Oct. 29, 2024) overturned vehicles, collapsed bridges and covered towns with mud, making it the European country’s deadliest disaster in decades.
The organization coordinating emergency services in the hardest-hit eastern Valencia region said 202 people had been confirmed dead there.
Authorities in neighboring Castilla-La Mancha and Andalusia to the south had already announced a combined three deaths in their territories.
Rescuers armed with helicopters, drones and sniffer dogs descended into the water and searched the debris in search of dozens of people authorities believe are still missing.
The government has deployed 500 additional troops to the affected areas to reinforce the 1,200 troops already present for search, rescue and logistics operations. Another 500 will be sent on Saturday (November 2, 2024).
Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlasca said the Civil Guard alone had rescued more than 4,500 people as of Friday afternoon (November 1, 2024).
But three days after the disaster, hopes for more survivors are diminishing.
The courthouse in the city of Valencia has been converted into a morgue, where health workers wearing smocks carry stretchers covered with white sheets.
‘People are desperate’
Some cut-off areas remained without water, food or electricity for several days after the floods began, and many roads and railways remained impassable.
Engineers worked to remove abandoned cars scattered on distorted railway tracks and slabs of tarmac from destroyed roads and submerged fields, AFP Journalists saw.
French volunteers also announced that their staff had arrived in Spain on Friday (November 1, 2024) carrying equipment to help clear debris, pump water and rescue victims.
In the devastated town of Paporata, near the city of Valencia, some residents complained that aid was arriving too slowly and that volunteers’ efforts were failing.
“There aren’t enough firefighters, shovels haven’t arrived,” said Paco Clemente, a 33-year-old pharmacist who was helping clear mud from a friend’s house.
Thousands of people remain cut off from electricity and telephone networks, but it is expected that the estimated number of missing people will reduce once connections are restored.
Government minister Angel Victor Torres vowed a firm response to the looting on Thursday (October 31, 2024), with signs of a breakdown in order in several places.
Police said they have arrested 50 people for incidents including theft from vehicles and a jewelery shop.
In the town of Aldea in the Valencia region, Fernando Lozano told AFP he saw thieves snatching goods from an abandoned supermarket because “people are a little desperate”.
“Until things get back to normal and supermarkets are open, it’s going to get much worse here.”
Valencia region leader Carlos Mazón told reporters that sports centers and schools were among the sites being used for emergency food distribution.
wave of solidarity
An army of thousands of volunteers set off from Valencia on Friday (November 1, 2024) armed with shovels, buckets and shopping trolleys loaded with food and nappies to help distressed neighbors in the city’s flooded suburbs.
Among them was Federico Martínez, a 55-year-old engineer who went to Paporata to help residents clear mud from their town.
“We took whatever we had at home and now it’s time to help. It’s emotional, it gives you goosebumps,” he told AFP.
Helpers also reached Valencia football club’s Mestalla stadium, where volunteers formed human chains to collect piles of essential supplies.
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez praised the “unlimited solidarity and dedication of Spanish society” on X and promised assistance “as long as necessary”.
But the Valencia regional government urged people to stay at home, saying it risked preventing emergency services from reaching the worst-hit areas.
Pope Francis expressed his solidarity with the victims and their families in Spain, which is historically a Catholic country.
Sanchez will chair another meeting of a special committee made up of top Cabinet ministers to monitor the crisis on Saturday (November 2, 2024).
Marlasca has been sent to Valencia to facilitate cooperation between the central government and regional authorities in Spain’s highly decentralized state.
The storm that caused the flooding was formed by cold air rising over the warm waters of the Mediterranean Sea and is common at this time of year.
But scientists warn that climate change driven by human activity is increasing the intensity, length and frequency of such extreme weather events.
published – November 02, 2024 08:15 AM IST