The Spanish army continued its deployment this Monday in the Valencia region, hit by devastating floods, while popular discontent grows over the authorities' response to the disaster, which killed at least 217 people.
Some 5,000 troops were dispatched over the weekend to help distribute food and water, clear streets and protect stores and property from looters, with another 2,500 expected to join them on Monday, it said. Defense Minister Margarita Robles on public radio RNE.
A warship carrying 104 Navy soldiers and trucks full of food and water was heading to the port of Valencia on Monday. Bad weather continued in Spain. A severe hailstorm hit the city of Barcelona, some 300 kilometers to the north.
Alert in Barcelona
The Spanish Meteorological Agency placed the highest level of red alert on the coast of Barcelona on Monday due to extreme danger due to torrential rains and a very heavy downpour at El Prat airport. , advising against travel unless absolutely necessary.
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Risk of heavy rain accompanied by hail: The Catalan coast on red alert, Barcelona under the flood, traffic “strongly disrupted”
Airport operator AENA said Monday on X that around 50 flights scheduled to take off from Barcelona airport had been canceled and 17 flights scheduled to land there had been diverted. Spanish Transport Minister Oscar Puente told X that parts of the airport and its parking lot had been flooded. He added that the entire metropolitan rail service had been disrupted.
In the Valencia region, rescue teams continued Monday to search for missing people in the basements of buildings and underground garages, as well as at the mouths of rivers, where currents may have deposited bodies. They found no victims in the 5,000-space underground parking lot of the Bonaire shopping center near Valencia airport, radio station Cadena Ser reported, citing national police.
“Assassins”
Óscar Puente said Sunday that the death toll had stabilized because all the “surface” victims had been identified.
Europe's worst floods in 50 years have engulfed streets and the lower floors of buildings, sweeping away cars and sections of walls in waves of mud. The floods swept away bridges, destroyed roads and railway tracks, submerged crops in this region which produces almost two thirds of the citrus fruits grown in Spain.
Residents are unfazed by the failures of the authorities – regional and central – in anticipating and managing this climatic phenomenon linked to a cold drop spotted early by the country's meteorological services. The slowness of assistance is also pointed out.
The alerts were too late last Tuesday when the rising waters were already underway. Central government and regional authorities blamed each other for the flaws in the organization before and after the tragedy. D
Hundreds of residents of Paiporta, a municipality particularly affected by the floods, expressed their discontent on Sunday during a visit by the King of Spain Felipe, his wife Queen Letizia and the president of the socialist government Pedro Sanchez, some of them throwing mud and shouting “assassins”.
Demonstrators displayed distinctive signs of the Spanish far right. According to Margarita Robles, extremist groups are trying to take advantage of the situation.
Lack of clarity
Unions and left-wing groups are calling for demonstrations in Valencia on Saturday to demand the resignation of regional president Carlos Mazón, a member of the Popular Party (PP, right).
The daily El País reports that demonstrators gathered in large numbers on Sunday in Madrid in front of the headquarters of Pedro Sánchez's Socialist Party as a sign of protest.
The opposition accuses Madrid of acting too slowly to warn residents and send rescue teams, while the central government has said regional authorities are responsible for civil protection measures.
The lack of clarity regarding the number of dead and missing also outrages the victims' relatives.
Although a hotline has been set up for relatives to report missing people, the government has so far refused to provide a figure, saying only that “dozens and dozens” of people are still missing. to the call.
