relief and residents mobilized after deadly floods in Spain

More than 200 people died in the floods that occurred on Tuesday October 29 in Spain. In the Valencia region, the first affected, emergency services are hard at work.

Between searching for the missing and major clean-up, emergency services and residents remain strongly mobilized, four days after the flash floods which left more than 200 dead in Spain.

In Paiporta, a town in the south of Valencia, a row of volunteers, equipped with squeegees, are trying to evacuate the water that remains in front of homes. Further on, a man removes, with the help of a shovel, the mud accumulated at the entrance to his store.

If the floods are over, the damage is in fact immense, after the flooding of the Poio ravine which surprised the inhabitants of the town last Tuesday. The silt has infiltrated everywhere and the work of clearing it is now immense.

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez reported a new death toll of 211 this morning, announcing the dispatch of 10,000 additional soldiers and police officers.

Still “traumatic”

Four days after the events, some residents say they are still haunted by what they saw.

“It’s traumatic,” Cristian Pastrana, a resident of the town of Paiporta, told BFMTV.

“I saw people dead in their cars, lamp posts falling into the water, (I had) water up to my armpits, we couldn’t move,” he assures. “We couldn’t do anything, just survive.”

A “devastating event”

In Paiporta, a stricken town, the army arrived as reinforcements, a sign of the urgency of the situation. The soldiers on site are working to clear the scene, in particular by removing the carcasses with cranes, but also to secure businesses and homes against theft and looting.

The task promises to be immense, with vehicle debris piling up several dozen meters in certain streets.

“Our job is to be where we need to be, but the truth is that this event is devastating,” Spanish firefighter José Maria Blanco told BFMTV with emotion.

Donation of equipment in France

To help the inhabitants of the affected regions, some French people are mobilizing. Thierry Velu, president of the NGO French Catastrophe Relief, explains to BFMTV that they provide strictly material aid, as Spain has not officially requested international aid.

“Generators, pumps, boots, high-pressure cleaners, brooms” are thus sent to the other side of the Pyrenees, belonging to the emergency “reserve” of French disaster relief, according to Thierry Velu.

“The objective is to bring equipment (…), leave it there and see if there are any needs for additional equipment that we could bring in the coming days,” he explains, ensuring that there is a “huge surge of solidarity” in France towards the Spaniards.

The NGO explains that it collaborates easily with the emergency services on site. “We had a warm welcome,” assures Thierry Velu, despite a situation that he describes as “apocalyptic” on site.