Madrid, Oct 31 (EFE).- Emergency services were still working on Thursday to clear debris a day after a devastating storm left at least 95 dead in Spain.
The torrential rains that have fallen in recent hours are beginning to lose intensity although severe rainfall warnings are still in place in 12 Spanish provinces, including Tarragona in the northeast and Castellón in the east, which is on orange alert for predicted rainfall of nearly 40 liters in one hour or 100 liters in 12 hours, according to the latest forecast by the State Meteorological Agency (Aemet).
Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez is scheduled to visit Valencia on Thursday and be briefed about the progress of the emergency operations.
Thursday is the first of three days of official mourning declared by the Spanish government after the floods caused by the storm that has devastated the Valencian Community and parts of Castilla-La Mancha and Andalusia.
The Crisis Committee, set up by the government to coordinate rescue operations, will hold a meeting on Thursday and analyze the impact of the catastrophe in order to activate the necessary aid.
In Valencia, the worst affected by the rainfall and floods and where at least 92 people have died, firefighters continue to work mainly on the ground, cleaning and clearing debris, with no air support expected on Thursday, the Valencian government’s Emergency Coordination Center said.
More than 447 people from the towns most affected by the floods are still staying in shelters and 112 have received 21 cases of essential supplies since 10 pm on Wednesday.
Spanish power company Iberdrola has already restored supply to 42,000 of the 155,000 households affected by floods in Valencia.
In other affected areas of the country such as Albacete, in Castilla-La Mancha, – where two women died -, the search for five missing people in Letur resumed early on Thursday.
Secretary of State for the Environment Hugo Morán said that the predictions and analysis worked «perfectly» but «the response mechanisms» did not adequately incorporate the alerts.
«The prediction and analysis mechanisms have worked perfectly, they have been able to warn days in advance of what is going to happen; however, the subsequent response mechanisms have not adequately incorporated these warning messages,» he told EFE from the UN Biodiversity Conference (COP16) being held in Cali, Colombia.
«These natural phenomena with which we were used to living are acquiring dimensions that are unknown and the response mechanisms are not adequate for those dimensions,» Morán added.
A red alert has been issued in Valencia, apart from the province of Castellón, where an orange alert has been issued, especially in the coastal and inland areas of the north and due to storms, according to Aemet.
An orange alert has been issued in the pre-coastal and southern coastal areas of the province of Tarragona in the northeastern Catalonia, also badly affected by the storm, while the rest of the community is under yellow alert.
In the southern Andalusia, where one man has died, the rains are also easing after the strong intensity of the last few hours and only the provinces of Cádiz, Seville and Huelva remain under yellow alert for rainfall. EFE
aqr-esl-del/pd
