Spain dreads more flood deaths on day six of rescue

 

People clear mud from a street in Alfafar, in the region of Valencia, eastern Spain, on November 4, 2024, following devastating floods. [AFP]

Thousands of rescuers pumped water from submerged buildings, churned through muddy streets and cleared debris on Monday as Spain braced for more deaths from its worst floods in decades.

The toll stands at 218 dead -- all but four in the eastern Valencia region after authorities revised the total from 217 late Monday -- and could spike in the coming days as an unknown number of people remain missing.

Around 17,000 soldiers, police officers, civil guards and firefighters spent a sixth-day distributing aid, repairing infrastructure and searching for bodies using heavy machinery, drones and sniffer dogs.

Roads and railways were gradually being repaired, while 60 per cent of the telephone network had been restored, government minister Angel Victor Torres told reporters.

Almost all the power grid was back up and 93 per cent of the affected population has access to the gas network, said Rosa Touris, spokeswoman for the body coordinating rescue work in the Valencia region.

Divers on Monday concentrated their search for missing bodies in garages and a multi-storey car park in the town of Aldaia.

The structure is full of "millions of litres" of water and a morgue capable of holding 400 bodies is being prepared, said General Javier Marcos, head of the army's emergencies unit.

"To begin with a morgue was set up for around 100 victims -- but we quickly understood that would be insufficient," Marcos said.

Authorities meanwhile authorised the release of around 50 recovered bodies to their families, Valencia's high court posted on X.

The storm caught many victims in their vehicles on roads and in underground spaces such as car parks, tunnels and garages where rescue operations are particularly difficult.

Authorities in Valencia extended travel restrictions for another two days, cancelled classes and urged residents to work from home to facilitate the work of the emergency services.

Chaos in Catalonia

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has said Spain is carrying out its biggest peacetime deployment of the armed forces.

But relief works only reached some towns days after the disaster and in many cases volunteers were the first to provide food, water, sanitation and cleaning equipment.

Experts have questioned the warning systems that failed to alert the population in time and the speed of the response.

"They were saying 'alert for water', but they should have said it was a flood," Teresa Gisbert, 62, told AFP in the destroyed town of Sedavi, saying she had "lost everything".

For BassMotor, a small cleaning equipment business in the Valencia region, government help could not come soon enough after the floods destroyed almost all its stock.

After clearing the mud, the company needs to see "how the Spanish government and the aid are responding -- which at the moment doesn't seem to be moving forward much", spokesman Diego Navarro Rodriguez told AFP.

"Everything is pretty uncertain. So there's nothing left to do but wait."

National weather service AEMET announced the end of the emergency for Valencia but torrential rain sparked transport chaos in the northeastern Catalonia region.

Barcelona's El Prat airport, Spain's second busiest, cancelled 153 flights on Monday, Transport Minister Oscar Puente wrote on X.

The city closed some flooded metro stations and regional trains were suspended but no human casualties were recorded in Catalonia, regional leader Salvador Illa told a news conference.

Monarchs hit by mud

Spain also grappled with the aftermath of an  extraordinary outburst of popular anger in which crowds heckled and hurled mud at King Felipe VI, Queen Letizia and Sanchez.

A judge has opened an investigation into the chaos in the ground-zero town of Paiporta that cut short their visit on Sunday amid widespread discontent at the perceived mishandling of the crisis.

Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska blamed "marginal groups" for instigating the violence where mud spattered the monarchs' faces and clothes, and a window of Sanchez's car was broken.

Spain's transport minister told La Sexta television late Monday that it had been "a mistake" to organise the royal visit with emotions running so high.

Storms coming off the Mediterranean like the one that struck Spain one week ago are common during this season.

But scientists have warned that human-induced climate change is increasing the ferocity, length and frequency of extreme weather events.

"Politicians haven't acted on climate change, and now we're paying the consequences of their inaction," environmental activist Emi, 21, told AFP in the devastated town of Chiva.