Military reinforcements were deployed on Friday morning in the south-east of Spain to deal with the dramatic situation and total chaos caused by the deadly floods at the start of the week.
Three days after these floods, which left 205 dead and dozens missing, according to the latest relief report published this Friday at the beginning of the afternoon, poignant calls for help from desperate residents of small villages left to their own devices multiplied on radio and television.
“We continue to ask for water, to ask for food,” said Amparo Fort, the mayor of Chiva, a town of 16,000 inhabitants located west of Valencia. “You have to know that there are children, that we have elderly people,” she continued, sobs in her voice, in an interview with national radio RNE.
At the same time, scenes of looting took place, with the government announcing the arrest of 39 people and promising that security forces would show “absolute firmness”.
It is to deal with this dramatic human situation that 500 soldiers belonging to the Military Emergency Unit (UME), a special unit intervening in natural disasters, were deployed Friday morning in the region.
