Residents and volunteers from the Valencia region are urging greater assistance from the military as well as regional and national governments to address the damage and destruction inflicted by the devastating floods that have inundated numerous towns.
Yesterday, the influx of volunteers made it difficult for professional emergency workers to access certain areas, leading authorities to create a strategy on how and where to deploy them.
Nevertheless, residents remarked that the volunteers were well-organized and called for additional support to help clear the mud.
Local shop owner Emilia, aged 74, questioned, “Where is the army to assist us?”
We need your consent to load this comcast-player content. We use comcast-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content. Manage Preferences
“Where is the help that we are supposed to receive? Where is the army? Where are all these people? The houses are collapsing and they are ignoring us.”
When asked if she felt abandoned, she responded: “We feel abandoned; many people need help. It’s not just my house, it’s all the houses, and we are discarding furniture, we’re throwing away everything.”
“When will we receive help for fridges and washing machines? We can’t even wash our clothes or take a shower. This is a disaster.”
Volunteers congregate at Valencia’s City of Arts and Sciences before heading to areas affected by the floods.
Nurse Maria Jose Gilabert, 52, expressed that people are “devastated.”
“There is not much hope to be found here right now, not because help isn’t coming—volunteers are arriving from all over Spain—but because it will take a long time before this area is livable again.”
Local resident Ramon Felguera mentioned there was “a tidal wave of humanity heading this way” in reference to the volunteers.
“There are no words to express our gratitude to these individuals. We must appreciate what they are doing.”
In some of the most severely affected areas, individuals have resorted to looting due to a lack of food and water.
Police reported that 27 individuals were arrested for robbing stores and offices in the Valencia region.
According to utility company Iberdrola, over 90% of households in Valencia had their power restored as of yesterday, although thousands in isolated areas were still without electricity, making it difficult for rescuers to reach them.
Approximately 2,000 soldiers were dispatched to search for missing individuals and assist survivors of the storm, which has prompted a new weather alert in the Balearic Islands, Catalonia, and Valencia, with continued rain expected throughout the weekend.
Officials have stated that the death toll is likely to rise further. This disaster is already Spain’s worst flood-related incident in over fifty years and the deadliest to strike Europe since the 1970s.
Read more: Before and after satellite images show Spain’s devastation. Spain mounts its largest peacetime disaster recovery operation as the death toll reaches 211.
