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The death toll from devastating floods in southern and eastern Spain has risen to 211, with many still missing, and the government has sent an additional 10,000 soldiers and police to rescue operations.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced new damage figures on Saturday, saying the floods were almost certainly the worst in Europe this century, adding that there were “serious shortages” and “sludge” in the affected areas. He acknowledged the existence of “hidden local governments.”
Authorities continued to remove bodies from towns near the city of Valencia, with a focus on accessing flooded vehicles piled up in underground parking lots and tunnels within minutes.
“It is impossible to know how many people are missing and it would be unwise for me to give a figure,” Interior Minister Fernando Grande Marlasca said late Friday. Rescue teams are unable to access some cut-off areas in the Valencia region.
The floods, caused by heavy rains on Tuesday, are the deadliest natural disaster in Spain’s modern history, with the death toll exceeding 2021 floods in Germany and Belgium that killed more than 200 people.
Shocked Spaniards are still digesting stories of parents and children swept away by mudslides and elderly residents of flooded care homes screaming for help that never comes.
Food and clean water supplies are in short supply in the worst-hit areas, leading some to loot. On Friday, police announced the arrest of 27 people for stealing from stores and offices in the Valencia area.
Sanchez said the government would send an additional 5,000 military personnel to the affected areas to replace the 3,000 already deployed. The number of police officers to be dispatched will also double to 10,000.
“We know we have to do better, but we also know we have to come together and do it together,” Sanchez said of the rescue effort. The Valencian regional government is in charge of the operation, and Sanchez said it is ready to respond to the request.
After thousands of volunteers arrived in the affected areas on Friday to help clean up, the Valencian government announced on Saturday that it would first direct people to the Center for Arts and Sciences, away from the flood zone, which has become a nerve center. , tried to bring order to the effort.
The disaster has left local and national governments facing questions about why aid did not come sooner and why warnings about the heavy rain were delayed and lacked urgency.
The amount of damage to the grave also highlights the extent to which unauthorized construction has taken place over the years in an area at risk of flooding, where buildings should have been tightly controlled.
