Search operations for the missing, six days after the floods which left 217 dead, focused on underground car parks in the Valencia region on Monday.
“We have planned a morgue that can accommodate 400 dead today,” explained General Javier Marcos, head of the Military Emergency Unit (UME), during a press conference. “At the beginning, there was a morgue set up for around 100 victims, but we quickly realized that this would not be enough,” he stressed.
On Monday morning, the Spanish meteorological agency (Aemet) officially assured that the “meteorological crisis” situation had ended in the Valencia region, but the concern moved in the middle of the day some 350 km further north, in Barcelona, placed on red alert.
Torrential rains led to the cancellation of 153 flights, said Transport Minister Oscar Puente. Eighteen other flights also had to be diverted. High-speed train traffic between Barcelona and Madrid was also disrupted.
Impressive images, widely relayed on social networks, also showed vehicles blocked on a highway near the Catalan capital or flooded streets in neighboring towns. The red alert ended at 2 p.m.
Hello everyone. While particularly violent floods are putting Spain into mourning, the editorial staff of 20 Minutes is mobilized to give you all the information on current research. The results are only provisional and are already particularly tragic. This devastating natural disaster left at least 217 dead: 213 in the Valencia region alone, three in Castile-La Mancha and one in Andalusia.
