The Government will send 10,000 more troops to the Valencian Community -5,000 soldiers and the same number of police and civil guards-, where there are already 211 fatalities due to the danawhich will lead the Executive to approve on Tuesday the declaration of an area seriously affected by an emergency.
The Chief Executive, Pedro Sánchez, announced this this Saturday in an institutional statement at the Moncloa Palace, in which he specified that 4,000 of the military will arrive this Saturday and the rest on Sunday.
Largest peacetime deployment
“We are talking about the largest deployment of members of the security forces and bodies of the State of the Armed Forces that has ever been made in our country in times of peace,” emphasized the head of the Executive, who explained that so far They have rescued more than 30,000 people from flooded homes, roads and industrial estates.
For Sánchez, the magnitude of this natural disaster makes these numbers “insufficient” because, as he admitted, “help is taking a long time to reach many points and there are still blocked houses and garages, flooded municipalities and many helpless people.” .
For this reason, he welcomed the fact that the president of the Generalitat Valenciana has decided to increase his request for military personnel from 500 to 5,000, and that is why he informed Carlos Mazón this morning that the Government will immediately send more troops.
Declaration of seriously affected area
In addition, the Government will approve in the Council of Ministers next Tuesday the declaration of a seriously affected area, due to a civil protection emergency, for those places that have been hardest hit.
They will be areas of the Community of Valencia, Castilla-La Mancha, Andalusia, Catalonia and Aragon.
In addition, Sánchez has said that an inter-ministerial commission will be created that will work to urgently and quickly promote the reconstruction and economic relaunch of the affected areas.
Specifically, from the Valencian Community, he has indicated that the Ministry of Finance and the first vice-presidency of the Government will authorize the regional Executive the possibility of carrying out all the emergency expenses it needs, “without any limit on resources.”
He has also reported that the central Executive is in contact with the European Commission and has requested the procedures to request help from the European solidarity fund and the use of other community support resources.
Third day of mourning
Citizen solidarity is making its way from all over Spain to deliver help to the victims, assisted by thousands of volunteers in the most affected areas and in the midst of the pain for the victims on the third day of official mourning.
The process of removing and identifying bodies continues and many people remain missing.
A woman has been rescued alive after spending three days trapped inside a car that had been left at the bottom of an underpass in Benetússer (Valencia), according to information released by Civil Protection.
The Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, has stated, regarding the number of victims, that “it is reasonable to think that we are going to have more deaths” and added that “the data of 1,900 missing persons have not been considered.”
Volunteer shifts are already completed
The Generalitat Valenciana has organized a first team of 2,500 volunteers to carry out cleaning tasks in the affected municipalities and has called on the rest to come in the coming days.
Thousands of people, loaded with brooms, baskets and all kinds of tools and gadgets, have been walking to the Valencian neighborhood of La Torre and different towns in the Horta Sud region affected by dana since early this Saturday morning. to help with cleaning tasks.
The number of those arrested for looting rises to 82
President Sánchez has also reported that there are already 82 arrests for robberies, acts of looting and looting in the affected areas: “Unfortunately, there are people who take advantage of the situation to commit criminal acts.”
In this sense, the Valencian courts have ordered the preventive detention of 12 people who have been detained since Wednesday for acts of looting in businesses.
The Valencia Chamber of Commerce estimates that around 4,500 businesses in the province have suffered damage and that around 1,800 of these establishments may have been destroyed.
Transport
In another order of things, railway circulation between Barcelona and Valencia has been partially restored, as has that of the C5 and C6 commuter lines, as reported by the railway infrastructure manager, Adif, through the account of X INFOAdif.
More than one hundred roads, most of the secondary network, are still affected by the consequences of the damage, and of them, sixty are completely closed to traffic, according to the latest updated data from the General Directorate of Traffic (DGT), which recommends avoiding displacements.
The Official Gazette of the Generalitat (DOGV) publishes the order by which, from 00:00 hours this Saturday and until 23:59 hours on Sunday, the circulation of vehicles is restricted on the access roads to the municipalities of the province of Valencia most affected by the ‘dana’ to guarantee the mobility of all essential and complementary intervention services.
Valencian supermarkets open with long lines
In addition, several supermarkets in the Valencian capital and its metropolitan area, in some cases in affected areas, have opened this Saturday with long lines at their doors, which went around the block in some cases, and with access controls that remind to those established during the pandemic.
The Chiva City Council has also reported that the electricity and water supply has been restored in the urban center and that the UME has begun the tasks of tracing survivors and cleaning, from the area of the La Pahílla industrial estate and down the ravine.
The Malaga municipality of Álora continues without drinking water, although the supply is expected to be restored little by little throughout the afternoon.
The missing in Letur
Letur (Albacete) woke up with hopes of finding the five missing people before reaching the Segura River, in an artificial delta where the rambla ends, with the help of the eight dogs from the Civil Guard cynological team.
The Government of Castilla-La Mancha will establish this Monday a coordination commission that will address the reconstruction of the towns most affected by dana in the region, Letur (Albacete) and Mira (Cuenca) and will add an amendment to the 2025 regional Budgets to such an end.
94% of power supply restored
94% of the electricity supply points that had been affected have been restored (from 240,000 incident points to less than 14,000) and half of the 550,000 cut telephone lines have been recovered, as explained.
More than 2,000 damaged cars and trucks and hundreds of tons of debris and mud have already been removed.
Thousands of liters of bottled water and food rations have been distributed and five water treatment plants, water tanks, 200 portable latrines and 4,000 cooking and hygiene kits have been made available to the Generalitat Valenciana.
Forestry brigades have been deployed to help clean channels and banks and help repair damaged water infrastructure, with a total of 300 troops throughout the weekend.
The Ministry of Economy recalled this Saturday that insured people who have suffered damage resulting from the dana in Valencia, Albacete, Cuenca and Eastern Andalusia can request the corresponding compensation from the Insurance Compensation Consortium (CCS).
Robles: “Everyone has been overwhelmed by the magnitude”
For her part, the Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, has stated that the military is in all the towns where there has been damage and that she does not know if a national emergency should have been declared, while acknowledging that “everyone” has been overcome by the magnitude of the tragedy.
Regarding whether the state of alarm should have been declared, the Minister of Defense said: “I don’t know if it is a national emergency. In principle, when it rises to level 2 is when the EMU can act. It is a technical decision that must be respected.”
And he added: “Everyone has been overcome by the magnitude” of the tragedy, which “is unprecedented.”
Autopsies performed
Since last Wednesday, October 30, and until 9 p.m. on Friday, forensic doctors have carried out a total of 162 autopsies on deceased people, of which 39 are fully identified thanks to fingerprints.
The Civil Guard is transferring biological remains collected in the areas of Valencia to its laboratories in Madrid for analysis and subsequent identification.
Valencia, Spain / EFE
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And remove debris from rivers to prevent further flooding and ensure the waterways are clear. Emergency services continue to work tirelessly to restore normalcy in the affected areas, focusing on both immediate relief efforts and long-term recovery plans.
As the situation evolves, the Valencia government is coordinating with local authorities to assess damage and prioritize restoration efforts, including infrastructure repairs and support for displaced residents. Efforts are being made to ensure that basic needs are met, including access to clean water and food supplies.
Local communities have come together in solidarity, with numerous volunteer groups stepping up to assist with recovery efforts. The emotional and logistical challenges of the crisis are significant, but the resilience of the Valencian people is evident as they work together to overcome the disaster’s aftermath.
the impact of dana has been profound, affecting thousands and prompting large-scale volunteer efforts and governmental response strategies to facilitate recovery and aid those in need. As conditions stabilize, focus will shift toward rebuilding and improving infrastructure to mitigate the effects of future natural disasters.
