Four days after terrifying floods razed towns in eastern Spain, frustration at the State’s response is growing among some despairing residents.
“They’ve abandoned us,” said Charo de la Rosa, as she joined dozens of people queueing outside the only surviving pharmacy in Alfafar, a devastated suburb of Spain’s third city Valencia.
“I know of dead and missing people… they are neighbours, people you love, you grew up with them… and their cruel death could have been avoided,” the hospitality employee told AFP.
Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez vowed on Wednesday (Oct.30) that his government would not “abandon” the victims as the enormity of the catastrophe became clear. At least 211 people have been killed and dozens are still missing, according to the latest toll.
And on Saturday (2) Sanchez conceded the response has been insufficient and had to “improve” as he announced the deployment of 10,000 extra soldiers and police officers. A return to normality seemed a pipe dream in Alfafar and the neighbouring town of Sedavi, where the disaster has left deep scars.
Pyramids of mud-covered cars block entire streets, and pavements have becoming dumping grounds for mountains of unusable furniture.
As residents resumed the thankless task of clearing the mud, a woman burst into the middle of the street, wailing: she had learned that the floods destroyed her business. “Thank you to the people who have come to help us, to all of them, because from the authorities, nothing,” said a furious Estrella Caceres, 66.
Friends and relatives tried desperately to save what they could from the destroyed ground floor of the house where she has lived for 40 years. At the back of the home, her husband Manuel cleaned where the water rose to 1.5 metres (5 feet). A former firefighter, he was now a victim of disasters he helped fight for 33 years.
“This will take months because we can’t get the car out, and until the military unit comes to remove everything, we can’t take out anything,” he said. (AFP)
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