Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has ordered the deployment of an additional 5,000 soldiers to deal with the effects of devastating and devastating floods that swept the country this week, killing at least 211 people in the eastern, southern and central regions.
Sanchez, who was speaking after chairing a meeting of the Flood Crisis Committee, said that the government was using all resources to overcome the “terrible tragedy” of the floods, from which Valencia suffered the worst, according to the British newspaper “Daily Mail”. The Guardian.
He also noted that much aid has not yet reached the people who need it – likely due to floods and muddy roads – and urged people to work together and put the “political bickering” behind them and blame each other.
“There are still dozens of people searching for their loved ones and hundreds of families mourning the loss of a relative, friend or neighbor,” Sanchez said in a letter.
The floods that hit Spain this week are the worst flood disaster in Europe since 1967 when at least 500 people died in Portugal due to the natural disaster.
Given the high risk of doom for Spain, Sánchez said the country had seen “the largest deployment of armed forces and police personnel ever seen in our country during peacetime.” So far, it has carried out 4,800 rescue operations and helped more than 30,000 people in their homes, on roads and in flooded industrial areas.
However, aid was not reaching people in need, and it was taking a very long time due to closed roads, which is why the Spanish government ordered the deployment of 5,000 soldiers for rescue and assistance operations.
Sanchez’s speech to the country came at a time when thousands of volunteers showed up at the City of Arts and Sciences Center in Valenica, which has been transformed into the main point of the operation to clean up the affected areas.
Volunteers came out to help, but the mass arrival hampered emergency workers’ access to some areas, prompting authorities to draw up a deployment plan.