“The Valencia region requires more soldiers, machines, funding” to deal with the “second worst flood of the century recorded in Europe”, for this reason “the government will send 5 thousand army soldiers today to join the 3 thousand already deployed , and another 5 thousand between Guardia Civil and police forces”.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said this in an institutional statement after the crisis committee at Moncloa. “The death toll from the catastrophe”, which hit the Valencia region “it went up to 211”he added.
‘In addition to the search for the missing, the priority is to re-establish the damaged services in the municipalities’, the prime minister reported, in taking stock of the “second flood which has recorded the most victims since the beginning of the century”, at the end of the meeting of the crisis committee at Moncloa.
“Dana caused severe damage to bridges, highways, power lines, distribution companies and other infrastructure that was not designed to withstand the winds and volume of water that overtook them,” he added.
“Repair work has been carried out tirelessly in close collaboration with the private sector. We have made notable progress, but much remains to be done,” Sanchez said.
“Electricity consumption has been restored for 94% of those affected” by the interruption of supplies “and half of the 550,000 interrupted lines have been recovered, with the expectation of recovering the rest over the weekend”, underlined Sanchez.
“The Council of Ministers will approve the declaration of a seriously affected area for the areas of the Region of Valencia, Castile La Mancha, Andalusia and Catalonia which were most affected” by the torrential rains and “will appoint an inter-ministerial commission for the reconstruction and economic recovery , announced the Spanish Prime Minister, adding that “the Ministry of Finance will authorize the government of the Autonomous Community of Valencia to carry out all necessary urgent expenditure”.
In outlining priorities to deal with the catastrophe, Sanchez also said that 100 administrative jobs will be created at the State Delegation in Valencia, the regional prefecture, to speed up the process for businesses, self-employed people and families to receive state aid . Sanchez informed that he was “in contact with the European Commission”, which made available “the European Solidarity Fund and other community aid resources” and thanked for “the messages of solidarity received from all foreign authorities”.
Meanwhile, a woman was found alive and rescued after spending three days trapped in an abandoned car at the end of an underpass in Benetússerone of the centers most affected by the floods in the surroundings of Valencia.
The appeal of the mayors of the most affected municipalities
“It’s terrible, the landscape is desolate: there are 10,000 cars piled up in the streets, mud everywhere. We need heavy machines to clear the streets. We can’t do it alone.” AND’ the cry for help from the mayor of Aldaia, one of the municipalities in the southern belt of Valencia hit by the catastrophesubmerged by the long wave of floods caused by the Dana.
Four days after the extreme phenomenon, many neighborhoods remain isolated, without electricity and drinking water, despite the huge mobilization of the army and emergency vehicles. “Of the bridges we had in the country, only one remains standing. We are working with the inhabitants and the state security forces to try to gradually re-establish a so-called normality and help people return home”, declared Amparo Folgado, the mayor of Torrent in Tve. At least 800 displaced people remain hosted in the sports hall and only this morning the electricity was reactivated in a large part of the municipality. But many neighborhoods remain with entrances blocked by mountains of vehicles, debris and furnishings dragged by the tide of mud.
From Chiva, the mayor Amparo Fort launched an urgent appeal in a statement released on social media: “There is a need for water and food to supply the population because no assistance of any kind has yet arrived here and there is no telephone coverage in the area municipal”, said Fort, who defined the situation as “extremely serious”.
The Emergency Center of the Valencian government has asked the affected municipalities to indicate the areas where helicopters can land and areas where heavy vehicles such as excavators and cranes can park, the Efe agency informs.