Thousands of troops to be sent to Valencia after deadly Spanish floods as death toll rises to 211

(AP) -- Spain is sending 5,000 more soldiers and 5,000 more police to the eastern region of Valencia after deadly floods this week that killed more than 200 people, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has announced.

Hundreds are dead or missing in Paiporta, on the outskirts of Valencia. (AP: Angel Garcia)

So far, 211 bodies have been recovered after Europe’s worst flood-related disaster since 1967, when at least 500 people died in Portugal.
Rescuers were still searching for bodies in stranded cars and sodden buildings on Saturday four days after the monstrous flash floods that swept away everything in their path in the east of Spain.
An unknown number of people remain missing.
Hopes of finding survivors were boosted when rescuers found a woman alive after three days trapped in a car park in Valencia’s Montcada.
Residents burst into applause when civil protection chief Martin Perez announced the news.
At present there are some 2,000 soldiers involved in the emergency work, as well as almost 2,500 Civil Guard gendarmes — who have carried out 4,500 rescues during the floods — and 1,800 national police officers.
In a televised address, Mr Sanchez said the deployment in the thousands was the “biggest operation by the Armed Forces in Spain in peacetime”.
“The government is going to mobilise all the resources necessary as long as they are needed,” he said.
Thousands of volunteers are also helping to clean-up the thick mud that is covering everything in streets, houses and businesses in the hardest-hit towns.
Volunteer Rafael Armero, 19, told Reuters he had been involved in the clean-up for three days now.
“We have a backpack full of food and water for anyone who needs it,” he added.
Nurse Maria Jose Gilabert, 52, who lives in the flood-affected Picanya, said she was “devastated”.
“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,” she said.
More than 90 percent of the households in Valencia had regained power on Friday, utility Iberdrola said, though thousands still lacked electricity in cut-off areas that rescuers struggled to reach.
The persisting storm triggered a new weather alert in the Balearic Islands, Catalonia and Valencia, where rains are expected to continue during the weekend.

By Bounfaeng Phaymanivong
(Latest Update November 4, 2024)