Tragedy in Valencia: Devastating 'Dana' leaves more than 200 dead in its wake in Spain

José A. González

Valencia

Friday, 1 November 2024, 13:58 | Updated 14:07h.

From early this Friday morning, All Saints' Day, rescue teams have been working to search for the "dozens and dozens" of missing people and to supply food to the survivors in the towns of La Huerta de Valencia. The day brings another day of anxious searching for missing loved ones, on the one hand, and cleaning up streets and houses, on the other. The provisional death toll stands at 205 fatalities, distributed between the provinces of Valencia (202), Cuenca (1), Albacete (1) and Malaga (1). This is a provisional figure because, according to the Spanish government, there are "dozens and dozens of people missing".

«Everyone is mobilised,» said the country's Minister of Defence, Margarita Robles. As dawn broke in the east of the Spanish mainland, reinforcements from the emergency military unit (UME) started working tin the area most devastated by the effects of the 'Dana' weather depression. "Our priority is search and rescue," said a UME commander on the ground.

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The first reinforcement units arrived in Paiporta, Massanasa, Catarroja, Utiel and Torrent as a "first wave" to "collaborate in food distribution tasks and help the population" after the president of the Generalitat Valenciana, Carlos Mazón asked for help from the Army through his X social media account In the next few hours, another 500 soldiers will join in: one hundred from the Royal Guard, two hundred from other land units, one hundred from the Air Force and one hundred from the Navy. "We will provide support by land, sea and air for as long as it takes to find all the missing people," said Pedro Sánchez mid-morning on Thursday after meeting with the commanders of the integrated operational coordination centre (Cecopi).

They will be supported from the sky by 15 helicopters - including heavy-lift Chinooks - and 18 drones are already operating over the area. They will be joined by 24 dogs, specially trained to search for survivors in disasters and UN-certified urban search and rescue teams.

The almost two thousand troops deployed at 'ground zero' of the devastation caused by the Dana will work with the National Police, Local Police, Guardia Civil and Civil Protection teams to help survivors and search for the missing. In order to facilitate the arrival of food supplies to the people who remain cut off in the most affected areas, the UME will transfer the "necessary supplies" to Mercavalencia for subsequent distribution.

"We urge the population not to go out, not to move because the most important thing now is that supplies arrive," said the Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, Óscar Puente, in an interview on La1 on the TVE television programme. However, this Friday - a public holiday throughout Spain - a wave of solidarity has been unleashed in Valencia city.

Hundreds of residents from the southern neighbourhoods of the city of Turia are moving on foot equipped with brushes, water bottles and shovels to help the localities most affected by Tuesday's Dana. "If you know of any teams that are coming to Paiporta today can you bring wheelbarrows? Please, the rubbish is piling up in the street. It has to be removed, and no lorries can get there. That, together with the rubbish, the mud, and three days without water for basic hygiene and toilets.... This is starting to become a sanitary problem," said the authorities.

In the last few hours, i-DE, the electricity distribution network of the Iberdrola group, has managed to restore the electricity supply to more than 132,000 customers in the province of Valencia, 85% of those initially affected. More than 25 of these groups have already been connected in the affected towns such as Alborache, Alfafar, Buñol, Cheste, Chiva, Quart de Poblet, Montroy, Real, Siete Aguas, Torrent and Utiel, among others, and work continues in the rest of the towns that are still without service.

At the same time as the search and rescue work in La Huerta de Valencia, there is concern about the last traces of the Dana in other parts of the Iberian peninsula.

"Be careful, the Dana may give us a scare again this Friday," warned the spokesperson for the state weather agency (Aemet), Rubén del Campo. Shortly before 7am, the agency raised the warning level to maximum red alert for torrential rain in Huelva, the third time this week.

This Andalusian province is one of the areas of greatest concern on Friday, along with the Balearic Islands. In addition, five regions remain under warning at this time: Andalucía, the Balearic Islands, Catalonia, Extremadura and, once again, the Valencia. There are amber warnings in Valencia, Castellón, Tarragona, Mallorca and Menorca. So far today, 117mm of rain has been recorded in Cartaya (Huelva), 92 in Mazaricos (A Coruña) and 60 in Fregenal de la Sierra (Badajoz).

On Saturday, according to Aemet, weather instability will continue in the Mediterranean, with showers "again heavy and persistent in the south of Catalonia, also in the Valencia region and in the Balearic archipelago that, in a weaker form, may be recorded in points of the southern third of the mainland". The greatest danger will again be in the Balearic Islands, where the warning is amber, while Catalonia and Valencia remain at a yellow alert level.