Flood in Valencia: Death toll rises to 202, 366 people without water and electricity

The Integrated Coordination Centre that manages the consequences of the damage after the floods that hit the Valencian Community has raised the death toll to 202, with three more deaths in Castilla-La Mancha and Andalusia, while the search for missing people and the securing of homes, roads and infrastructure continues, Agenzia Nova reported.

Meanwhile, storm Dana has not stopped, and is continuing to cause heavy rain in the Valencian Community and western Andalusia. Several areas of the provinces of Valencia and Castellon, as well as the south of Tarragona, are under orange alert by the State Meteorological Agency, while in Andalusia the alert is red in the coastal areas of Huelva, Andevalo and Condado.

366 thousand people in twenty municipalities are still without drinking water, electricity, gas and telephone services. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Development, Territorial Distribution and Construction continues to deal with the accidents that have occurred on the regional road network of Andalusia since the beginning of the flood.

In the Valencian Community, 126 roads are still affected by the storm, 39 remain closed to traffic. Among them are four regional arteries. The emergency service insists on asking the population to avoid using cars to get around.

The Spanish Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, said that 500 more soldiers have joined the approximately 1.200 soldiers of the Emergency Unit, to assist the territories affected by the flood.

“The 500 additional soldiers are already operating in the territory,” Robles explained to the Spanish public broadcaster “RTVE.” In total, 1.700 soldiers have been deployed and the minister assured that “more will be added if necessary.”

“The Army will be present in all the affected localities,” and in addition to Utiel and Requena “where the Military Emergency Unit has been present since the beginning, we will be in Ribarroja, Turrena, Paiporta, Algemesi and wherever it is necessary, without any kind of limitation,” Robles added. The main tasks of the army are “helping to dig out people who may be in basements or on ground floors,” “towing vehicles, and helping with the transportation and arrival of food.”

Yesterday, the President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sanchez, asked the citizens of Valencia and Castellón not to leave their homes because the storm "continues". Speaking to the press accompanied by the president of the Valencian Community, Carlos Mazon, after visiting the Emergency Coordination Center in Valencia, Sanchez began his speech by thanking all those involved in the rescue and relief operations.

 “I would like to express the gratitude of the Spanish Government to all public employees. In circumstances like those that the Valencian Community is experiencing, we must value the public sector. To all the Civil Protection units that are working day and night to find the missing and the bodies,” said the Prime Minister.

“The priority at this time is to find the victims, the missing, to calm the anguish that the families are suffering and secondly to make all the resources of the State available from an economic point of view for the reconstruction and recovery of normality as soon as possible. For any other resource they need, the Spanish Government is here. We will not leave the Valencian people alone,” added the President.