In the areas most affected by the DANA weather phenomenon, professional assistance has been slow to get going. Residents of the nearby city of Valencia then take matters into their own hands and flock to the affected suburbs, armed with brushes and buckets.
Professional assistance is coming very slowly in the affected areas in Spain. The weather phenomenon DANA has been wreaking havoc in various regions of the southern European country for several days. The region around Valencia has been particularly hard hit. At least 95 people have died there. Code yellow still applies there on Friday for possible heavy rain and stormy weather. “People still have no electricity or water there, but they do get help from ordinary people here,” notes our reporter Jan Claeys, who is on site together with photographer Frederiek Vande Velde.
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On Friday morning they were again on the main track that leads from the city of Valencia to the hard-hit Paiporta. That village was completely flooded in just a few minutes on Wednesday by water from the Turia River, among others. At least 62 people have already died in Paiporta.
From the city of Valencia, our reporters saw on Friday morning an “incessant stream of people in solidarity” who walked several kilometers on foot to the hardest-hit suburbs with shovels, buckets, wheelbarrows, brushes, drinking water, etc.
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