The death toll from the floods in Spain this week has risen to 205, as residents in the Valencia region were warned to brace for more rain.
Authorities in Valencia raised the death toll there to 202 on Friday, November 1, 2024, afternoon, bringing the overall toll to at least 205 in what have been the deadliest floods in Spain’s modern history.
The state weather agency AEMET said that four regions, including Valencia, remained on amber alert because of the risk of rains and storms, days after rivers of mud-coloured waters left a trail of devastation.
Days after the flash floods coursed across parts of the country, sweeping away bridges, cars and streetlights, the number of missing people remains unknown.
The situation remains dire in many of the affected areas. Thousands remain without access to water or reliable food while parts of the heaviest-hit areas remain inaccessible.
On Friday, the concerns over those who are still struggling coalesced into a show of solidarity.
Thousands of people from unaffected areas in the Valencia region, carrying shovels, food and water, began turning up in the hardest-hit areas, offering help.
As roads across the region remained blocked, they arrived by foot, often walking several kilometres to reach the devastated areas.
Before-and-after satellite images of the city of Valencia illustrated the scale of the catastrophe, showing the transformation of the Mediterranean metropolis into a landscape inundated with muddy water. The V-33 highway was covered in a thick layer of mud.
Meanwhile, more storms are expected.
The Spanish weather agency issued alerts for strong rains in Tarragona, Catalonia, as well as part of the Balearic Islands.
Additional 1,000 Soldiers Earmarked To Help With The Rescue Operations
Earlier this week, more than 1,000 soldiers from Spain’s emergency response unit were deployed to Valencia to bolster the efforts of local emergency services.
On Friday, Spain’s Defence Minister, Margarita Robles, said that a further 500 soldiers were being sent to the region and that more could be sent if needed.
“Their missions include helping to dig out people who may be in basements or lower floors – unfortunately there are a lot of them – and helping to pump out water [from roads] to allow transportation so that food and water can reach certain populations.”
“This is a horrible tragedy. One has to keep in mind that this is a storm that is unprecedented, not just in this century but even in the last.”
Margarita Robles
A mobile morgue had been deployed, along with psychologists, as well as specialised teams capable of locating bodies.
The country’s Interior Minister, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, later told reporters that a further 500 soldiers would be sent to the region on Saturday, adding to the 1,700 already on the ground.
The Minister said that law enforcement agencies have rescued more than 4,500 people trapped by the floods.
Meanwhile, the Mayor of the municipality of Alfafar, south of the city of Valencia, appealed for help.
Days after a deluge of muddy water had destroyed homes, swept away cars and cut off access to part of the town of 22,000 people, Juan Ramón Adsuara said that there had been little sign of firefighters, soldiers or national police. “We’ve been forgotten. There are people living with corpses in their homes, this is really sad,” he told local media.
The sentiment was echoed across the hardest-hit areas.
In Chiva, the Valencian town where nearly a year’s-worth of rain fell in eight hours, its Mayor, Amparo Fort, told a news agency that “entire houses have disappeared, we don’t know if there were people inside or not.”
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