Spain sends thousands more troops to flood zone

A house caked with mud is pictured in an area affected by floods in Paporta, a city in Valencia, Spain, on Saturday, November 2, 2024. Photo Credit: AP

Spain is deploying 10,000 extra soldiers and police officers to the eastern Valencia region devastated by historic floods. 211 people have died due to floodsPrime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Saturday.

Surviving waves of dirty water submerged cities and destroyed infrastructure, dashing hopes of finding survivors four days later in the European country’s worst disaster in decades.

Almost all the deaths were recorded in the Valencia region, where thousands of security and emergency service workers were clearing debris and mud in search of bodies.

Prime Minister Sanchez said in a televised address that the disaster was Europe’s second-deadliest flood this century and announced a massive increase in security forces dedicated to relief efforts.

Sanchez said the government had accepted the Valencia region’s leader’s request for 5,000 more troops and informed him of the additional deployment of 5,000 police officers and civil guards.

He said that Spain is making the largest deployment of army and security forces during peacetime.

– Flood relief distribution –

Restoring order and distributing aid to destroyed towns and villages – some of which have been cut off from food, water and electricity for days – is a priority.

Authorities have come under criticism over the adequacy of flood warning systems, and some victimized residents have complained that response to the disaster was too slow.

“I know the response is not adequate, there are problems and serious shortages… cities buried in mud, desperate people looking for their relatives… we have to improve,” Sanchez said.

In the ground-zero towns of Alfar and Sedawī, AFP correspondents saw no troops, while residents removed mud from their homes and firefighters pumped water out of garages and tunnels.

“Thank you to all the people who have come to help us, because nothing from the authorities,” an angry Estrella Casares, 66, told AFP in Sedawi.

Authorities in the Valencia region have restricted access to roads for two days to allow emergency services to carry out search, rescue and logistics operations more effectively.

A video broadcast by Spanish media on Saturday showed the head of a civil protection team celebrating the rescue of a man who had been trapped in a car for three days.

Due to telephone and transportation networks being badly damaged, it is difficult to establish the exact figure of missing people.

Sanchez said power has been restored to 94 percent of homes affected by the outages and about half of the cut telephone lines have been repaired.

Some motorways have reopened, but local and regional roads are like “Swiss cheese”, meaning some places will likely remain inaccessible by land for weeks, Transport Minister Oscar Puente told El País daily.

– King’s visit –

Ordinary citizens carrying food, water and cleaning equipment continued their grassroots initiative to aid the recovery on Saturday.

An AFP journalist saw about 1,000 people fleeing flooding from the Mediterranean coastal city of Valencia to nearby towns.

Authorities have urged people to stay at home to avoid crowding on the roads, which would hamper the work of emergency services.

Spanish media reported that King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia are due to visit the Valencia region on Sunday with Sanchez and regional leader Carlos Mazon.

Mazzone on Saturday called the floods “the worst moment in our history” and presented a number of proposals ranging from infrastructure to economic aid to help his region recover.

The storm that caused the flooding on Tuesday was caused by cold air moving over the warm waters of the Mediterranean Sea, which 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.