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 this Friday morning in the region.
Reopen the roads and search for the missing
The sending of these soldiers, announced Thursday evening by the central government, followed an urgent request from the president of the Valencia region, Carlos Mazón, whose government is overwhelmed by this unprecedented crisis
These reinforcements bring to 1,700 the number of soldiers deployed in the Valencia region, by far the most bereaved by the floods, since 155 of the 158 deaths were recorded there.
A sign of the authorities' concern, Defense Minister Margarita Robles assured Friday that the government would send as many reinforcements as necessary and that they would stay as long as necessary.
“We will send the 120,000 men of the army if necessary,” she said in an interview on TVE.
The army's priorities are to reopen the roads to allow the delivery of aid, particularly food, but also to help in the search for missing people, the exact number of which is not known, but is very high. .
People caught in their car
For the first time, the central government recognized Thursday, through the Minister of Territorial Policy, Ángel Víctor Torres, that there were “dozens and dozens” of missing people, which leads one to believe that the toll is expected to increase in the coming days.
“There are mountains of cars” piled up in the mud, testified Amparo Fort, the mayor of Chiva. “Many are empty, but for others, it is clear that they have occupants,” she explained.
Alerted too late to the seriousness of the situation, many people were surprised in their cars and were unable to escape.
In Valencia, a morgue was set up in the “City of Justice” to allow the identification of bodies, brought at regular intervals by ambulances from where employees in scrubs lower stretchers covered with a white sheet.
The survivors, who lack everything, must also face increasing insecurity, according to multiple testimonies.
“People were coming in to get pants, they were stealing,” Fernando Lozano, a resident of Aldaia, west of Valencia, who had gone to the city's shopping center, told AFP on Thursday.
Solidarity in place
In this very dark panorama, the survivors could however count on spontaneous demonstrations of solidarity.
On this public holiday, hundreds of people – carrying brooms, shovels, food and even diapers – left Valencia, a city which was not affected by the floods, on foot to go to devastated neighboring towns. , noted AFP journalists.
Some said they were responding to a call from friends, others simply wanted to be helpful.
Although the sun shone this Friday in Valencia, vigilance was still required in certain areas of southern Spain.
The National Meteorological Agency (Aemet) has warned that heavy rainfall will continue this weekend.
Aemet has therefore decreed a “red alert” (maximum risk level) in the province of Huelva, in Andalusia (southwest of the country, bordering Portugal).
For their part, the provinces of Valencia and Castellón, in the Valencia region, remained under orange alert.
