Madrid (Brussels Morning Newspaper) – Death toll expected to keep growing as Spain’s worst flood-related tragedy in modern history sweeps across the region of Valencia.
It’s one of the most fatal weather events in modern Spanish history. The number of those killed in destructive flash flooding in Spain has skyrocketed to at least 207, as police fear more bodies are concealed among the destruction and fresh weather alerts for rain prompt fears of further flooding. According to local media, Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska said: “The update is that there are 207 confirmed victims.” He added: “It is impossible to know the number of missing people.”
How has the Spanish government responded to the crisis?
Some 500 troops were deployed to search for people who are still missing and assist survivors of the storm, which triggered a fresh weather warning in the Balearic Islands, Catalonia and Valencia, where rains are expected to persist during the weekend.
The federal administration in Madrid is also facing criticism for not mustering the army sooner than it did and for rejecting an offer from the French government to send 200 firefighters to assist with search and rescue efforts. Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has promised to do whatever it takes to help those impacted by the disaster.
Why is the death toll in Spain expected to rise?
Officials expressed the death toll is likely to keep rising in what is already Spain’s most threatening flood-related disaster in modern history and the most harmful to hit Europe since the 1970s, with most of the deaths so far in Valencia, the eastern area that bore the brunt of the devastation.
Emergency services operating to clear cars piled up at the entrance of a flooded tunnel in the suburbs feared finding more trapped bodies. “We’re trying to remove vehicles bit by bit to see if there are victims,” one rescue worker described on state television. “We don’t know.”
Qhat role are volunteers playing in flood recovery efforts?
The volunteer clean-up steps in Valencia – organised largely by young people on social media – have witnessed columns of hundreds of people march to the areas most impacted by the flooding. Local head of infrastructure Martínez Mus expressed the move had been taken to ensure emergency services could use the roads willingly and to guarantee the supply of water, energy, communications, and food distribution.
