Spain’s prime minister Pedro Sánchez has ordered 5,000 more troops and 5,000 police officers and civil guards to the Valencia region as residents criticise local authorities over their response to catastrophic flooding.
The death toll on Saturday rose to 211 people, with most fatalities in and around Valencia, Pedro Sánchez announced. The toll is expected to rise further.
Heavy rains that began on Monday caused floods that destroyed bridges and covered towns with mud, cutting off communities and leaving them without water, food or electricity.
Sánchez said the deployment of emergency services and the army was Spain’s largest in peacetime, in response to one of the worst floods in Europe this century.
The prime minister said he was aware “the response that is being given is not enough” and acknowledged “severe problems and shortages”.
He said there are still “desperate people searching for their relatives. People who cannot access their homes. Homes destroyed and buried by mud. I know we have to do better.”
Weather warnings remain in force in north-eastern and southern Spain through Sunday, while another was issued in the Balearic Islands for Saturday.
Around 1,700 soldiers are already working on search and rescue operations in the Valencia region, although hope of finding more survivors is dwindling.
Part of the focus is on pumping water out of underground tunnels and car parks, where it is feared people were trapped as water surged in.
Paco Polit, a journalist in Valencia, told the BBC the new troops will bring in much needed heavy machinery, bulldozers, trucks, and help to improve the speed and organisation of the rescue efforts.
Sánchez said some places are still “suffering from lack of basic resources”.
“We know that aid is taking time to reach certain locations. There are still garages and homes that are blocked and people are still trapped,” he said.
He vowed teams will work tirelessly until aid reaches everybody and people have regained normalcy, and called for national unity.
Authorities have restored electricity to more than 90% of homes, and brought back almost half of telephone lines that had gone down, he added.
The government also authorised 100 interim civil servants to help distribute financial aid.
Local authorities are facing criticism over the speed of the response and for a lack of warnings in advance of the flooding.
The civil protection agency, overseen by the regional government, issued an emergency alert to the phones of people in and around the city of Valencia after 20:00 local time (19:00 GMT) on Tuesday, by which time the flood water was swiftly rising in many areas and in some cases already wreaking havoc.
Juan González, who lives in the town of Aldaia, said the area was prone to flash flooding.
“It’s outrageous that our local government didn’t do anything about it, knowing that this was coming,” he said.
In the devastated town of Paiporta, where more than 60 deaths have so far been reported, residents have expressed their frustration that aid is coming in too slowly.
