The death toll rose to 219, with the first bodies handed over to families…

The 15,000 soldiers and police officers deployed on the ground are also supported by 287 forest guards, around a hundred customs agents and 44 forensic doctors, listed Pedro Sánchez, during his press conference, also mentioning “600 specialized vehicles and machines for pumping, cleaning and supplying affected areas.”

On the ground, the situation remains very complicated. In Paiporta, a town of 25,000 inhabitants considered the epicenter of the tragedy, with more than 70 victims, drinking water is available again but the streets are still clogged with vehicles.

“We are better, but we are not doing well,” mayor Maribel Albalat told public broadcaster TVE.

According to the Spanish executive, electricity has been restored to “98% of homes” and “68%” of damaged telephone lines have been repaired. In addition, 40 kilometers of roads and 74 kilometers of railways were repaired.

The courts have already authorized the handing over of “nearly fifty bodies” of the deceased to their families, indicated the Superior Court of Justice of Valencia on the social network has never been communicated.

The human toll continues to rise, a week after the “floods of the century”. There are now 219 deaths, according to the Spanish government. Among the victims, 214 died in the Valencia region, four in Castile-la-Mancha and one in Andalusia.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced on Tuesday a first emergency plan of 10.6 billion euros to help residents and businesses affected by the historic and deadly floods which ravaged the south-east of the country.

“The total investment of all these first measures” will exceed “10.6 billion euros”, declared the socialist leader, unveiling a series of aid for the disaster victims, but also for the local authorities concerned. “It’s a good first step, an agile step,” he insisted.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced on Tuesday that he had doubled in three days to nearly 15,000 the number of soldiers and police deployed on the ground after the floods which ravaged the south-east of the country.

“In the 72 hours since I last spoke […]the number of soldiers, members of the national police, civil guards, deployed by the Spanish government increased from 7,300 to 14,898,” Pedro Sánchez said during a press conference.

If numerous volunteers equipped with shovels and brooms have once again converged in the devastated towns, elected officials are calling for professional equipment to clear the hundreds of cars still overturned on the roads.

“We need machines, we need professionals who come and clean the streets, empty them, so that people can take care of their homes,” implored the mayor of Paiporta, Maribel Albalat, on the TVE channel. In Paiporta, “100% of homes and 100% of businesses were affected. We need businesses to help us,” urged the councilor.

According to the Valencia Chamber of Commerce, 4,500 businesses located on the ground floor could have been affected. Dozens of shopping centers and industrial zones were also affected, while transporters in the region lost numerous trucks.

On the agricultural side, the damage is also impressive, particularly in citrus fields, of which the Valencia region is one of the leading exporters. According to the regional agricultural union La Unio, 50,000 hectares of crops would have been affected.

“It is still too early to make estimates,” said Celedonio Villamayor, director of the Insurance Compensation Consortium (CCS), a public-private organization responsible for paying compensation in the event of a natural disaster. But “we know that in economic terms”, this disaster “will certainly have a very high cost”, he continued. The bulk of the bill should fall on the insurance sector, which will have to compensate businesses and individuals.

For comparison, the cost of the floods of July 2021 in Western Europe (Germany, Belgium, France, Austria, Netherlands), which caused more than 200 deaths, had reached nearly 43 billion dollars (40 billion euros), according to the reinsurer Swiss Re.

The “president” of the Generalitat of Valencia (the equivalent of the regional council) asked the government for a first aid package worth 31.4 million euros to “rebuild” and “mitigate” the effects of the disaster, reports RTVE. He also announced that the Generalitat Council has approved a first line which will provide “emergency” 6,000 euros to “all families” whose homes were affected by the storm.

Located between Albacete and Murcia, in the southeast of the country, the town of Letur was devastated by torrential rains last week. Two people lost their lives and four are still missing. But human remains have just been discovered by search teams in the Ramblas district, reports Spanish radio and television.

Due to heavy rains in Catalonia, the airport runway and terminal were completely flooded on Monday afternoon. the images were impressive.

The Spanish meteorological institute Aemet returned Catalonia to orange rain alert on Monday evening. And this Tuesday, this vigilance drops back to the yellow level. However, rain is forecast in the area over the next few hours. As a reminder, torrential rains fell on the Barcelona region yesterday.

This is the underground car park of the Bonaire shopping center, in Aldaia, a town of 31,000 inhabitants in the suburbs of Valencia. With a capacity of 5,700 places, it is completely flooded and the authorities fear finding bodies there. “All the means of the armed forces are at work to dry out this parking lot, but there are millions of liters,” admitted General Javier Marcos.

The courts have already authorized the handing over of “nearly fifty bodies” of the deceased to their families, the Superior Court of Justice of Valencia indicated on the social network X.

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.