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04-11-2024
MADRID: A delegation led by Spain’s king and prime minister was heckled as it visited the Valencia region hit by deadly floods, with some screaming “assassins” and others throwing mud, according to journalists at the scene.
King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia visited the town of Paiporta, one of the most affected by the floods that have killed more than 200 people, alongside Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and other officials.
The crowd’s anger seemed mostly directed at Sanchez and the head of the Valencia region, Carlos Mazon. “Mazon resign!” some shouted. “How many deaths?! Out!”
The deadliest flash floods in Spain’s modern history killed at least 214 people, with dozens still unaccounted for, after torrential rains swept the eastern region of Valencia.
Hopes of finding survivors ebbed five days after torrents of muddy water wrecked towns and infrastructure in Spain’s worst such disaster in decades.
In a televised statement, Sanchez said yesterday that the government was sending 5,000 more army troops to help with the searches and clean-up in addition to 2,500 soldiers already deployed.
“It is the biggest operation by the armed forces in Spain in peacetime,” Sanchez said. “The government is going to mobilize all the resources necessary as long as they are needed.”
Valencian regional authorities said last night the total number of fatalities in the region was 211, plus two from Castilla La Mancha and one in Andalusia.
The tragedy is already Europe’s worst flood-related disaster since 1967 when at least 500 people died in Portugal.
Volunteers flocked to Valencia’s City of Arts and Sciences centre yesterday for the first coordinated clean-up organized by regional authorities.
The venue has been turned into the nerve centre for the operation.
In Valencia’s Picanya suburb, shop-owner Emilia, 74, told Reuters: “We feel abandoned, there are many people who need help. It is not only my house, it’s all the houses and we are throwing away furniture, we are throwing away everything.
“When is the help going to come to have fridges and washing machines? Because we can’t even wash our clothes and we can’t even have a shower.”
Nurse Maria Jose Gilabert, 52, who also lives in Picanya, said: “We are devastated because there is not much light to be seen here at the moment, not because they are not coming to help, they are coming from all over Spain, but because it will be a long time before this becomes a habitable area again.”
The storm triggered a new weather alert in the Balearic Islands, Catalonia and Valencia, where rains are expected to continue during the weekend.
Scientists say extreme weather events are becoming more frequent in Europe, and elsewhere, due to climate change. Meteorologists think the warming of the Mediterranean, which increases water evaporation, plays a key role in making torrential rains more severe.
Amidst the shock and trauma in Valencia, the outpouring of solidarity is growing by the day. At a museum building in the city centre, vast numbers of volunteers were queuing up to receive supplies buckets, mops, food and water before boarding buses to the areas worst hit by the catastrophic floods which overwhelmed the region earlier this week, killing more than 200 people with many still missing.
The organizers believe 15,000 people showed up this morning alone for the first coordinated clean-up, filling what many feel is a vacuum left by the authorities.
Sixteen-year-old Pedro Francisco had been waiting in line with his parents for four hours, desperate to help. (Int’l Monitoring Desk)
