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 and an additional 1,000 soldiers were earmarked to help with the rescue operations.
Authorities in Valencia raised the death toll there to 202 on Friday afternoon, bringing the overall toll to at least 205 in have been was 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.
On Thursday, Aemet had warned that the adverse weather conditions were expected to continue in the coming days. “We’re going to send a clear message,” the agency wrote on social media. “The meteorological emergency is not over. The storm still continues over Spain.”
Days after the flash floods coursed across parts of the country, sweeping away bridges, cars and street lights, 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.
The regional government attempted to dissuade people from going to flood-hit regions. “We are deeply grateful for the help that is being provided to the affected populations,” it wrote on social media. “We ask that you please do not travel to these areas because the roads are collapsing and emergency services cannot access them.”
The regional leader, Carlos Mazón, later told people that it was “imperative” that they go home, citing concerns that the swells of volunteers would collapse access points that were crucial for emergency services.
Earlier this week, more than 1,000 soldiers from Spain’s emergency response unit were deployed to Valencia bolster the efforts of local emergency services.
On Friday, Spain’s defence minister, Margarita Robles, said 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.”
A mobile morgue had been deployed, along with psychologists, as well as specialised teams capable of locating bodies. “This is a horrible tragedy,” she told broadcaster RTVE. “One has to keep in mind that this is a storm that is unprecedented, not just in this century but even in the last.”
Ms Robles linked the storm to the climate crisis, echoing the many scientists who have said that extreme weather events such as heatwaves and storms are becoming more intense because of climate change.
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 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 there had been little sign of firefighters, soldiers or national police.
“We’ve been forgotten,” he told local media À Punt. “There are people living with corpses in their homes, this is really sad.”
Instead it had been left to residents and local police to do what they could. Some had been using their own machinery to try to clear out part of the municipality that remained inaccessible, while others were risking the roads to drive to Valencia in order to bring supplies.
“We’ve had to empty a supermarket to distribute food among the population,” he said. “Please, we’re asking for help. We’re running out of everything.”
The sentiment was echoed across the hardest-hit areas. “The situation is unbelievable. It’s a disaster and there is very little help,” Emilio Cuartero, of Masanasa, on the outskirts of Valencia, told the Associated Press. “We need machinery, cranes, so that the sites can be accessed. We need a lot of help. And bread and water.”
In Chiva, the Valencian town where nearly a year’s-worth of rain fell in eight hours, its mayor, Amparo Fort, told broadcaster RTVE that “entire houses have disappeared, we don’t know if there were people inside or not”.
As rescuers scrambled to comb the devastated areas, politicians sought to blame each for why the alert warning people to stay in their homes was sent out only after the flooding had begun.
Aemet had launched a red alert for the region on Tuesday morning. But it took until after 8pm for the civil protection service to send an alert urging residents not to leave their homes, leading the warning to sound as many were already grappling with the rushing waters.
In some of the hardest-hit areas, residents drew a direct link between the delay and the death toll. “If they had warned us, these deaths would not have happened,” Laura Villaescusa, a resident of La Torre, told Reuters. “The deaths we have now could have been avoided.” – Guardian