Latest reports suggest that Pedro Sánchez, Spain’s prime minister has ordered the country’s largest peacetime military deployment, announcing that 10,000 troops and police officers will be drafted in to help deal with the aftermath of this week’s devastating floods, which have killed at least 211 people in eastern, southern and central regions.
Speaking after chairing a meeting of the flood crisis committee, Sánchez said the government was mobilising all the resources at its disposal to deal with the “terrible tragedy”, which stuck hardest in the eastern region of Valencia. He also acknowledged that much of the help still wasn’t getting through and called for unity and an end to political bickering and blame games.
“There are still dozens of people looking for their loved ones and hundreds of households mourning the loss of a relative, a friend or a neighbour,” he said in a televised address on Saturday morning. “I want to express our deepest love to them and assure them that the government of Spain and the entire state, at all its different administrative levels, is with all of them.”
Describing the torrential rains and floods as “the worst natural disaster in our country’s recent history” and the second deadliest European floods of the century, the prime minister announced a huge increase in the numbers of army and police personnel taking part in the relief effort.
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In the first 48 hours of the crisis, he said, Spain had witnessed “the largest deployment of armed forces and police personnel that’s ever been seen in our country during peacetime. It has so far carried out 4,800 rescues and helped more than 30,000 people in their homes, on the roads, and in flooded industrial estates.”
However, he said much of the help was taking too long to reach blocked and flooded houses and garages and isolated villages.
“That is why the Spanish government is today sending 4,000 more personnel from the military emergencies unit to Valencia province,” said Sánchez. “Tomorrow, another 1,000 military personnel will arrive … I’ve also ordered the deployment of an amphibious navy boat that has operating theatres, helicopters and a fleet of vehicles that will arrive at Valencia port in the coming hours.”
The prime minister also said 5,000 more national police and civil guard officers would be sent to the region. There are already 2,500 soldiers and 5,000 police officers deployed in the region.
“Our second priority is identifying and recovering the bodies of the dead and we need to do it quickly but with all the dignity and guarantees that the victims and their families deserve,” he said. “Over the past 48 hours, military and security personnel have inspected thousands of garages, riverbeds and roads, and recovered the bodies of 211 mortal victims.”
Specialist forensic personnel and mobile morgues were already in the disaster zone, he added, and would work “day and night; night and day for as long as it takes until all the victims have been located”.
Story was adapted from the Guardian.
