thousands of volunteers from the Valencia region come to help spontaneously

SPAIN – Hundreds of people, brooms and shovels in hand, flock to the town of Paiporta. In this town south of Valencia hit by the floods in eastern Spain, thousands of volunteers from the region came spontaneously to help this November 1, as you can see in the video at the top of the article.

« I live in L'Eliana, just outside of Valencia, and I came here with a lot of people to help clean up this mess and it's amazing. It's like a big corridor of people helping these victims of this incredible disaster, it warms the heart », wants to believe Bart. “ We came because we believe that only the people will save the people », underlines Andréa for her part. The Valencia resident deplores the inaction of regional and local authorities and welcomes the unity and organization of this spontaneous solidarity.

Military reinforcements

Three days after these floods, poignant calls for help from desperate residents of small villages left to their own devices were multiplying on radios and televisions. 500 additional soldiers were deployed this Friday morning in the region. This shipment follows 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, with 202 of the 205 deaths recorded. Defense Minister Margarita Robles assured Friday that the government would send as many reinforcements as needed and that they would stay as long as necessary.

But for Amber, a 71-year-old resident of Paiporta, the help received is still insufficient and the situation cannot be resolved in ” one or two months » : « We need a lot of help because this has caused a lot of harm. And the damage will be repaired, but the people who left will not return, » she chokes, on the verge of tears.

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