Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez was evacuated from Spain’s flood disaster zone on Sunday as angry locals threw mud at political leaders and the Spanish king over a string of defeats that left them helpless before the deadly flood.
Anger flared after Sánchez, King Felipe and the head of the Valencia region arrived at Paiporta, a riverside town hard hit by shelling, home to nearly a third of the 214 victims of the flood , in which some residents yelled “murderers” at the group.
Residents on the town’s muddy streets complained that authorities warned them too late about the flood threat this week, then made mistakes by mismanaging the slow and sluggish relief effort. lack of resources leaves many people to fend for themselves for days.
The explosive official visit comes as the search for bodies in Paiporta continues five days after Tuesday’s floods caused Spain’s deadliest natural disaster in decades. Scientists believe it is related to climate change.
Rescuers are still pumping water out of underground parking lots out of concern that they will become graves for people moving their vehicles.
The Socialist Party prime minister’s office said he was evacuated after tourists were “insulted and attacked”. Carlos Mázon, head of the Valencia regional government, which is responsible for disaster prevention and relief, has also left.
King Felipe stayed for more than an hour despite the muddy rain, listening and comforting the victims. His bodyguards tried to protect him with umbrellas and Queen Letizia burst into tears.
Earlier at the town’s Bar Arosa, whose bright yellow and white interior resembles a landfill, owner Silvia Martínez was still overseeing the first phase of the cleanup. “We’re sweeping mud, mud, mud into the streets,” she said.
The central government on Saturday announced it would increase the number of soldiers in the relief effort to 7,500 and the Valencia regional government promised greater cooperation with Madrid. But Martínez was skeptical.
“Politicians on TV said food and water were delivered here from day one. That’s a lie,” she said. “If it weren’t for the volunteers bringing us food from outside, we wouldn’t have anything.”
Residents collected milk, flour, green beans and tomato sauce from a roadside table set up by donors, a scene once unimaginable in a middle-income town of nearly 27,000 people. Mediterranean Sea. Some people are still living without electricity, water and gas at home.
Pressure on Mázon, a member of the conservative People’s Party, is mounting as piles of crushed cars still block some streets. “We made mistakes, including me,” he said Saturday. “We will do it right.” He announced the formation of five crisis management committees with national and regional officials.
Some protesters have criticized him for not declaring a “catastrophic state of emergency,” the highest alert level that would automatically transfer control to the Spanish government.
But Sánchez, a Socialist Party member who has spent years in conflict with the People’s Party, said the solution is not a central government takeover. “We must forget our differences, put ideology and territorial sensitivities aside and act as one united nation,” he said.
But he added: “There will be time to analyze the negligence. To reflect on how to improve the distribution of power in the face of such extreme situations.”
Aemet, Spain’s state weather agency, sent out its first “red warning” for intense rain at 7.36am on Tuesday, but it contained no advice on what people should and shouldn’t do. broadcast widely.
In Paiporta, Mati Garces’ smartphone did not light up with an emergency alert until regional authorities sent an alert after 8 p.m.
But two hours earlier, Garces had faced rising muddy water on the street where she and her children went shopping for Halloween decorations. She rushed her family to the upstairs apartment and watched the water rise to the top of the front door of her building. She later helps rescue a man trapped on the roof of a truck by throwing a sheet to him and pulling him up through a first-floor window.
“So the alert came, the siren on my phone went off as the person we rescued was in my house,” she said.
For many in Paiporta, the shock of the town’s river bursting its banks was exacerbated by the torrential rains that occurred elsewhere. “Aemet’s warning was about rain. But it doesn’t rain here,” Garces said.
On the corner, Gabriela Navarre was angry that local authorities had closed parks and cemeteries on Tuesday afternoon, but not schools. “So I can’t take my kids to the park but they can die at school, right?”
A soldier said the army’s emergency response unit arrived in Paiporta, brought several vehicles and did “whatever the people needed”, including removing cars and blocked debris people enter their homes.
But residents said they need more water pumps, dredgers and cranes. And military personnel were far outnumbered by the thousands of volunteers who walked miles to help clean up affected towns, carrying brooms, spades, hoes and wheelbarrows.
The authorities expressed gratitude but tried to limit the size of the volunteer army – and urged people to wear rubber boots to avoid difficulties.
The calculation of financial costs is only just beginning. Carmen Marin, 27, who was cleaning out a garage in the basement, said her family and the trucking business lost six cars. “We don’t know if we will get back 80% of what we lost or 50% or nothing,” she said.
But insurance and compensation are topics for another day. Until now, the pain of the most tragic loss is still too great. “I thought there would be more deaths, many more,” said her father, Juan Enrique Marin. “Because we are not prepared. We were not warned.”
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