The Spanish Ministry of Transport released 24.8 million euros on Friday 1is November, to cover the first urgent repairs of road and rail infrastructure damaged by the terrible floods which affected the Valencia region on the night of October 29 to 30. This is just the beginning. The priority is to rebuild the section of the A7 motorway viaduct destroyed by floods, which is part of the Valence ring road, on which 78,000 vehicles usually pass per day. Pending its return to service, a temporary three-lane diversion will be set up.
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Work on the Chiva and Torrent railway tunnels, heavily damaged by floods with 1.2 kilometers of track destroyed, has already started. But it will be impossible to restore the AVE high-speed train connection between Madrid and Valencia before “two to three weeks at least”, said Transport Minister Oscar Puente. No date has been given for the restart of the three cut commuter train lines. One of them is completely destroyed over 90 kilometers.
While all attention is still focused on the search for dozens of missing people, and the instructions given to residents are to limit travel as much as possible, it is impossible to assess the staggering cost of repairing the damage caused by the passage of the “cold drop” which devastated the province of Valencia and affected the surrounding regions. Nor the cost of paralyzing the activity of many companies and industries located in Spain's third largest city.
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“We won't leave you alone, promised the president of the Spanish left-wing government, Pedro Sanchez, to the Valencians from October 30. We will help you with all the resources of the State, and if necessary the European Union, so that you can get out of this, rebuild your homes and lives as quickly as possible. To villages and towns, we say the same thing. We will rebuild your streets, your squares, your bridges.” The same day, the president of the autonomous community of Valencia, Carlos Mazon (Popular Party, right), announced 250 million euros in aid to the disaster victims, i.e. “ a minimum of 6,000 euros in direct, express and unbureaucratic aid » per victim. He also asked the European Union to activate its solidarity funds.
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