More than 50 dead in floods in Spain

Severe flooding following heavy rain has claimed dozens of lives in Spain. In the eastern region of Valencia, at least 51 people have died, the civil protection agency reported. Other people are also missing.

Some people are still trapped in inaccessible places, the regional government of Valencia said. The emergency services urged people to stay at home. In the neighboring region of Castile-La Mancha, an 88-year-old woman was found dead, Spanish media reported.

Transport and other infrastructure affected

Heavy rains have caused severe flash floods in large parts of eastern and southern Spain since yesterday. Cars were washed away by the water masses, streets in villages turned into rivers. There were also massive disruptions to rail and road traffic. A high-speed train with almost 300 people on board derailed near Málaga. According to the railway company, no one was injured. Several motorways and federal highways were also closed.

The police and emergency services used helicopters to free people trapped in their homes and cars. In some areas, residents were trapped in their homes and made emergency calls on social media, as the newspaper El País reported. More than 1,000 soldiers were deployed in the affected areas. The central government set up a crisis team to coordinate rescue operations. Classes were cancelled at numerous schools and universities.

Government call for evacuation

The Prime Minister of the Valencia region, Carlos Mazón, had called on residents to go to higher ground. People are also missing in the city of Albacete in Castile-La Mancha, at least six according to the media. The storm with heavy rain had already passed over Mallorca and the other Balearic Islands the day before yesterday.

The rain area is expected to move towards the northeast during the course of the day. However, a severe weather warning remains in effect for large parts of the country. The situation will not ease again in all of Spain until Thursday, the weather service Aemet announced.

The death toll in Valencia, Cuenca and Albacete has risen to 64 and seven are missing due to the floods generated by the DANA

There are currently at least 64 dead and seven people missing due to the floods generated in Valencia by the DANA, EFE reports.

The Generalitat reports that there are currently 62 dead in Valencia, and another death has been confirmed, that of a woman in Mira, Cuenca, and another deceased in Letur, Albacete (pending confirmation of whether it is one of the people they were looking for for disappearance in the region) making a total of 64 at the moment.

Four lifeless bodies have been found in Paiporta; five in Torrent, and one in each case in Chiva, Cheste, Alfafar and Alcudia.

A new alert this morning from the Es-Alert population warning system, via mobile phones, asks people to avoid any type of road travel in the province of Valencia as a preventive measure against heavy rains.

The authorities are beginning the process of collecting and identifying the victims, he said.

The emergency services are also looking for the seven people who are missing due to the strong floods caused by the DANA. Specifically, six people are being sought in Letur (Albacete) and another in L’Alcudia (Valencia), according to the emergency services.

At around 6:15 p.m. on Tuesday, the 112 Emergency Services of Castilla-La Mancha had already announced that they were looking for at least two people, municipal employees, although they were anticipating the possibility that there were more missing.

They also reported that the fire teams sent to the scene of the events had rescued four individuals. A large emergency contingent is deployed in the Albacete municipality with the presence of firefighters from the Hellín and Los Molinicos fire stations, Civil Protection, Civil Guard teams, a reconnaissance and rescue helicopter, as well as the Red Cross, among others.

In this community, the Government of Spain has activated the Military Emergency Unit (UME) at the request of the Generalitat to deal with the situation caused by the DANA in the Utiel area. In addition, the Magro River, for which a special hydrological alert warning has been issued due to the increase in its flow, has begun to overflow at the height of the municipalities of Carlet and Algemesí (Valencia).

For this reason, the Generalitat’s Emergency Coordination Centre has established the emergency level for the storm in situation 2 of the special flood plan for the entire province of Valencia, according to the latest update.

The president of the Valencian Generalitat, Carlos Mazón, has urged the population not to go out on the road, especially in the province of Valencia, to stay at home and to look for high points if they are near ravines or riverbeds: “The night is going to be long,” said the head of the Consell at the Emergency Coordination Centre, who stressed that “there is no confirmation of human losses,” Europa Press reports.

Multiple victims procedure

The Generalitat has activated the multiple victims procedure for “prevention of what may come” and to “anticipate the aspects of legal medicine and identification” of the fatal victims as a result of the DANA.

This is how the head of the Consell has explained it, in an appearance after 08.00 hours from the Emergency Coordination Centre together with the Government delegate, Pilar Bernabé, and the head of the Provincial Firefighters Consortium of Valencia, José Miguel Basset.

Along with Mazón, the Vice President and Minister of Social Services, Equality and Housing, Susana Camarero, and the Ministers of Justice and Interior, Salomé Pradas; Health, Marciano Gómez; Environment, Infrastructure and Territory, Vicente Martínez Mus; the President of the Valencia Provincial Council, Vicente Mompó; and representatives of the emergency personnel are also present at the Emergency Centre.

The President has indicated that this procedure has been activated since Tuesday and that reinforcements from both the Government and other neighbouring autonomous communities “are planned” in case “it is necessary”. He has thanked the “coordination and preparation” with the Government of Spain and the “provision of the personnel that are able to act based on availability and being able to access as we open the roads”.

At this point, he indicated that there are numerous personnel on pre-alert status so that they can intervene “as we need and order” using the resources that are already mobilized, which he stressed are at this time “the appropriate ones and those that allow us to act where it is accessible.”

Mazón recalled that a new mobile alert from civil protection Es-Alert was sent early this morning, asking citizens to avoid travelling by road in the province of Valencia. “The first message we want to send out,” said the head of the Consell, who called for not obstructing the roads to allow the forces to work “better.”

On the other hand, he reported that the Generalitat has activated a telephone number for the attention of relatives of people who have disappeared as a result of the DANA, 900 365 112, and insisted that this number “is not to report emergencies, for which 112 is still in force, but to report missing persons, their details and the latest news we may have about them.”

She also indicated that at this time there are still areas without telephone coverage and without electricity, and specified that Telefónica is working “at full speed to recover the highest level of coverage for the necessary communications”, and warned that at this time “there are still people in places that are still inaccessible”.

However, she guaranteed that all the personnel are “perfectly prepared” and “at the gates of some urban centres”, in some of which “it has already been possible to enter”, although “in others it has not, because it is impossible to access some specific ones”.

Do not go out on the roads

For her part, the Government delegate in the Valencian Community, Pilar Bernabé, has stressed that it is a “vital and necessary” issue that the population tries not to go out on the roads of the province of Valencia, a recommendation that also extends to Castellón. “It is not so much because of the weather warning, but because of the situation of the roads, that there are still people on them and that we have to help the emergency services to facilitate the rescue work,” he explained.

In fact, he assured that “practically all” the main roads in the province are closed “and the secondary roads too,” so he insisted: “It is not a mere recommendation, it is a necessity to guarantee the safety of the people who are on the road and of the people who have to go and rescue other people who are in municipalities that they have not yet been able to reach. It is an absolutely necessary and essential recommendation.”

Bernabé pointed out that from this Tuesday at 3:00 p.m. the Military Emergency Unit (UME) has been activated, which is at the disposal of the Generalitat to “reinforce all emergency and rescue work” and “any issue that is necessary or required.” This is the entire Bétera battalion, specifically, a total of 236 personnel and 86 means, to which are added units from Seville, Madrid, Zaragoza and León, which will reach 400 personnel.

“This is what we already have in operation, plus the material means, both for search and rescue, as well as equipment that also has to do with heavy vehicles for moving debris,” Bernabé specified, who has detailed that there are four UME helicopters deployed for rescue work, which are added to the air means of the Generalitat.

Stockpiling of “essential” material

The delegate has reported that a stockpile of material has also been carried out in a container to gather “essential” materials such as blankets and “primary” medical equipment and has guaranteed that the teams are “prepared to attend to any need.”

Finally, Bernabé has conveyed his “love and affection to the thousands of people who have contacted the police and emergency services and who have raised the alarm at any time”, as well as to the mayors who have spent “some terrible hours and who continue to spend some very difficult hours”.

He has also recognised the work of the personnel who work “throughout” the entire province of Valencia in “an unexpected and exhausting way” and in “practically heroic” situations. “It is an essential and necessary first message”, he stressed.