This Friday, the Spanish Government raised the death toll from the storm that has hit the east and south of the country since last Tuesday to 205, while the desperate search for the missing continues with more military personnel and thousands of volunteers mobilize to help by carrying water. and food to the victims.
The majority of the victims (202) were found in Valencia (north), where the storm caused major flooding, the rest of the dead are two in Castilla y León and one in Andalusia.
Furthermore, the data is still provisional, since the process of collecting and identifying bodies continues and many people remain missing.
The emergency services, which were joined today by another 500 soldiers, are working hard to search for missing people and are also dedicating themselves to opening roads to facilitate access and distributing basic aid.
This Friday afternoon, the troops in the most affected provinces will be expanded with 250 more soldiers, so by the end of the day there will be about 2,000 soldiers deployed and working on debris removal, rescue and distribution of supplies.
Thousands of people carry aid on foot
And while emergency and rescue personnel are dedicated to searching for the missing, opening roads to facilitate work and distributing aid, solidarity actions by citizens take place in the streets.
Thousands of people, taking advantage of the holiday in Spain, traveled on foot from the center of Valencia to the towns most affected by the floods, carrying buckets, mops, shovels and carts loaded with food, water and other products.
The authorities later demanded that no one travel, either in their vehicles or on foot, to the affected areas, to prevent the access roads from collapsing and facilitate the work of the emergency services, a message to which the Directorate has joined. General of Traffic (DGT).
For its part, the Ministry of Justice will send another ten forensic experts and five assistants from the Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences (IMLyCF) to Valencia to collaborate in the identification of the victims, in addition to the 16 forensic experts and four assistants sent previously. .
These professionals continue to perform autopsies and identify victims.
More than one hundred roads are still closed in the regions of Valencia, Andalusia and Castilla-La Mancha and thousands of people are still without water or electricity, as well as without telephones; Many neighbors go to the places where emergency personnel distribute water.
In Letur (Albacete), one of the towns most shaken by the enormous force of the water, 200 people from emergency services and volunteers resumed the search for the five people who remain missing, helped by ten dogs from the Military Emergency Unit and the Civil Guard who search the old part of the town.
The High Speed rail service between Madrid and Valencia is cut off and the Government plans to recover its operation in two weeks, since there are several tunnels that have suffered very significant damage; The airline Iberia launched an action plan to facilitate the movement of people who need it.
Calls are being made from some of the most affected municipalities to help with tractors, cranes, dump trucks or generator sets, and some farmer organizations are asking their associates to take their tractors out onto the streets to help remove the cars that accumulate in the streets. roads and streets.
The National Federation of Transport Associations of Spain (Fenadismer) mobilized to bring essential products to the affected areas and help with the removal of vehicles.
The State Meteorological Agency (Aemet) today stressed that the adverse situation has not subsided, that the intense rainfall continues today and will last throughout the weekend and the importance of checking the weather and the state of roads before traveling.
The Aemet deactivated the warning for Andalusia (south), where the red warning (extreme risk) was maintained until early afternoon first and orange (significant risk) later on the coast of the province of Huelva due to rains that were recorded from the first time this Friday, and that in some areas there may be accumulations of more than 140 liters per square meter.
This afternoon the Balearic Islands (Mediterranean) and Catalonia, in eastern Spain, continue with an orange and yellow warning for rain and storms.
In the Valencian Community they continue with a yellow warning for rains and storms.
“We are going to send a very clear message and we are going to leave it fixed. The meteorological emergency has not ended. The dana (temporary) continues over Spain”, published the Aemet-Comunidad Valenciana, and has posted this message on its X account.
The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, who chaired the Crisis Committee this Friday to monitor the storm, stressed the same message through the social network in this crisis; They are “the example of solidarity and unlimited dedication of Spanish society.”
With information from EFE
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