The DANA that exploded in Spain last Tuesday the 29th, and which is already considered the worst environmental catastrophe in Spain so far this century, has reached 217 victimsthe majority in the Valencian Community, but also in Castilla-La Mancha and Andalusia. Meanwhile, Valencians and people from all over Spain have continued working throughout the weekend to try to advance in the titanic task of returning to a normality that still seems far away.
The last victims were counted in Letur (Albacete) and Pedralba (Valencia). In the first case, it was a 70 year old woman who could be identified by fingerprints and whose body was found 12 kilometers from where she disappeared.
In the case of Pedralba they were three corpsestwo belonging to a British couple residing in the town and a man. The three victims, who lived in scattered nuclei, were found by residents of the town, since they still do not have the presence of outside help.
But the number of victims is going to grow. What is approaching now is the dreaded moment in which the hundreds of garages that were absolutely flooded after DANA and that hide an undetermined number of victims, especially people who tried to leave with their vehicles and were surprised by the force of the water.
Of particular concern is the Bonaire shopping center parkingin Aldaia. This facility has about 5,700 parking spaces and was completely submerged on Tuesday. No one wants to venture to estimate how many victims there may be under the water, but it may exceed all expectations. Fifty personnel, with the help of four machines and a kayak, began the bailing work in the shopping center this Sunday.
This Sunday morning, the UME estimated the height of the water in the shopping center parking lot at 150 centimeters after an inspection with small boats and it was expected that they would be able to access it at night. That will be the moment when the extent of the tragedy is discovered.
Also this Sunday there was another concentration of volunteers in Valencia to intervene in the cleaning work. The number was much lower than on Saturday, when more than 100,000 people gathered in the City of Arts and Sciences, and was also reduced by the restrictions imposed by the Government of the Generalitat for better organization of the teams.
Meanwhile, the Government has given the green light this weekend to the deployment of 3,633 soldiers deployed in Valencia to collaborate with the search and rescue efforts for DANA victims, and 690 to work from other logistics units or Headquarters.
They have also been launched “immediate response” groups announced this Saturday by the Valencian president, in which ministers of the central government are also participating, at the request of Carlos Mazón himself.
It rains in the wet
And as if this area of the Valencian Community had not suffered enough, DANA, as meteorologists have been announcing for days, is not leaving the area. This Sunday, a large part of the territory has been in yellow, orange or even red alert due to accumulation of rain.
In fact, This Sunday afternoon the rain made an appearance again in the localities where piecework was being done. Authorities were quick to warn of the importance of people taking shelter, given that many people were spending most of their time on the streets carrying out cleaning tasks and many of them were unable to return to their homes.
In addition to the mud and sludge, the streets of the affected towns are also still full of personal belongings, cars, furniture and all kinds of belongings ruined by DANA – it must be taken into account that in these towns there are no longer containers to throw away garbage , since they were swept away by the floods—, which meant one more difficulty with the rain alert this Sunday.
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