Ashifa Kassam
Sun 3 November 2024
THE GUARDIAN
King Felipe VI is heckled by residents during his visit to Paiporta in the Valencia region on Sunday.
Hundreds of people have heckled Spain’s King Felipe and Queen Letizia, as well as the prime minister and the regional leader of Valencia – throwing mud and shouting “murderers” – as the group attempted an official visit to one of the municipalities hardest hit by the deadly floods.
The scenes playing out in Paiporta on Sunday laid bare the mounting sense of abandonment among the devastated areas and the lingering anger over why an alert urging residents not to leave home on Tuesday was sent after the flood waters began surging.
Much of the fury appeared to be directed at the elected officials, as calls rang out for the resignation of Pedro Sánchez, the country’s prime minister, and Carlos Mazón, Valencia’s regional leader.
Sánchez was swiftly evacuated as bodyguards used umbrellas to protect the group from the barrage of mud. “What were they expecting?” one furious local asked the newspaper El País. “People are very angry. Pedro Sánchez should have been here on day one with a shovel.”
The king insisted on continuing the visit, at one point meeting a man who wept on his shoulder. He was also confronted by a young man who told him that “you’ve abandoned us”, asking why residents had been left on their own to grapple with the aftermath of the deadly floods. “You’re four days too late,” he told the king.
The man also challenged the king on why the civil protection service, which is overseen by the regional government, had sent the alert hours after the state-run weather agency had warned of deteriorating conditions. “They knew it, they knew it, and yet they did nothing,” he shouted at the monarch. “It’s a disgrace.”
Spain’s royal palace later said that the king’s plans to visit a second hard-hit town in the region had been postponed.
The public rage came as the death toll from the floods climbed to 217. As the meteorological agency on Sunday again issued a red alert, forecasting further heavy rain in the area, mayors from the affected municipalities pleaded with officials to send help.
“We’re very angry and we’re devastated,” said Guillermo Luján, the mayor of Aldaia. “We have a town in ruins. We need to start over and I’m begging for help. Please help us.”
The town’s 33,000 residents were among many in the region grappling with the aftermath of the ferocious floods that rank as the deadliest in Spain’s modern history. The number of people missing remains unknown.
Luján said his town was in desperate need of heavy machinery to clear out the vehicles and debris piled up along the streets.
The municipality had yet to confirm the extent of the devastation, leaving Luján bracing for the worst. Aldaia has one of the region’s most visited shopping centres, with a vast underground car park that on Tuesday filled with water in a matter of minutes.
“Right now, the upper part of the centre is devastated and the lower level is a terrifying unknown,” Luján told broadcaster RTVE. “We don’t know what we’re going to find. We want to be cautious, but we’ll see. It might be heartbreaking.”
In Paiporta, the mayor, Maribel Albalat, described the situation as desperate. Days after the town’s ravine overflowed, unleashing a deluge of water that wreaked havoc on the 29,000 inhabitants, parts of the town remain inaccessible, she said. “It’s impossible because there are bodies, there are vehicles with bodies and these have to be removed,” she told the news agency Europa Press. “Everything is very difficult.”
Albalat said the number of deaths had climbed to 70 in the small town and was expected to climb in the coming days, as access was secured to underground garages. On Tuesday, in the absence of any sign that this storm would be different from any other, many residents had gone down to their garages to move their cars to higher ground.
In flooded towns such as Alfafar and Sedaví, mayors described feeling abandoned by officials as residents scrambled to shovel mud from their homes and clear streets. In some areas, residents were still trying to secure electricity supply or stable phone service.
On Friday, the catastrophic images emanating from these municipalities coalesced into a show of solidarity, as thousands of volunteers from lesser-affected areas trekked to the hardest-hit areas carrying shovels, brooms and food supplies. On Saturday, thousands more turned up at Valencia’s City of Arts and Sciences, which had been hastily converted into the nerve centre of the clean-up operation.
The mayor of Chiva, where on Tuesday nearly a year’s worth of rain fell in eight hours, said the situation was a “rollercoaster” for the 17,000 residents.
“You see sadness, which is logical given that we’ve lost our town,” Amparo Fort told reporters. “But on the other hand, it’s heartening to see the response that we’ve had from everyone … there is a real, human wave of volunteers, particularly young people.”
Sánchez said 10,000 troops and police would be deployed to help with what he described as “the worst flood our continent has seen so far this century”.
He acknowledged that help had been slow in reaching where it was most needed. “I’m aware that the response we’re mounting isn’t enough. I know that,” he said. “And I know there are severe problems and shortages and that there are still collapsed services and towns buried by the mud where people are desperately looking for their relatives, and people who can’t get into their homes, and houses that have been buried or destroyed by mud. I know we have to do better and give it our all.”
Scientists say the human-driven climate crisis is increasing the length, frequency and intensity of extreme weather events. The warming of the Mediterranean, which increases water evaporation, plays a key role in making torrential rains more severe, experts have also said.
Angry crowd throws mud at Spanish royals and officials during visit to Paiporta
King Felipe VI is heckled by residents during his visit to Paiporta in the Valencia region on Sunday.
Hundreds of people have heckled Spain’s King Felipe and Queen Letizia, as well as the prime minister and the regional leader of Valencia – throwing mud and shouting “murderers” – as the group attempted an official visit to one of the municipalities hardest hit by the deadly floods.
The scenes playing out in Paiporta on Sunday laid bare the mounting sense of abandonment among the devastated areas and the lingering anger over why an alert urging residents not to leave home on Tuesday was sent after the flood waters began surging.
Much of the fury appeared to be directed at the elected officials, as calls rang out for the resignation of Pedro Sánchez, the country’s prime minister, and Carlos Mazón, Valencia’s regional leader.
Sánchez was swiftly evacuated as bodyguards used umbrellas to protect the group from the barrage of mud. “What were they expecting?” one furious local asked the newspaper El País. “People are very angry. Pedro Sánchez should have been here on day one with a shovel.”
The king insisted on continuing the visit, at one point meeting a man who wept on his shoulder. He was also confronted by a young man who told him that “you’ve abandoned us”, asking why residents had been left on their own to grapple with the aftermath of the deadly floods. “You’re four days too late,” he told the king.
The man also challenged the king on why the civil protection service, which is overseen by the regional government, had sent the alert hours after the state-run weather agency had warned of deteriorating conditions. “They knew it, they knew it, and yet they did nothing,” he shouted at the monarch. “It’s a disgrace.”
Spain’s royal palace later said that the king’s plans to visit a second hard-hit town in the region had been postponed.
The public rage came as the death toll from the floods climbed to 217. As the meteorological agency on Sunday again issued a red alert, forecasting further heavy rain in the area, mayors from the affected municipalities pleaded with officials to send help.
“We’re very angry and we’re devastated,” said Guillermo Luján, the mayor of Aldaia. “We have a town in ruins. We need to start over and I’m begging for help. Please help us.”
The town’s 33,000 residents were among many in the region grappling with the aftermath of the ferocious floods that rank as the deadliest in Spain’s modern history. The number of people missing remains unknown.
Luján said his town was in desperate need of heavy machinery to clear out the vehicles and debris piled up along the streets.
The municipality had yet to confirm the extent of the devastation, leaving Luján bracing for the worst. Aldaia has one of the region’s most visited shopping centres, with a vast underground car park that on Tuesday filled with water in a matter of minutes.
“Right now, the upper part of the centre is devastated and the lower level is a terrifying unknown,” Luján told broadcaster RTVE. “We don’t know what we’re going to find. We want to be cautious, but we’ll see. It might be heartbreaking.”
In Paiporta, the mayor, Maribel Albalat, described the situation as desperate. Days after the town’s ravine overflowed, unleashing a deluge of water that wreaked havoc on the 29,000 inhabitants, parts of the town remain inaccessible, she said. “It’s impossible because there are bodies, there are vehicles with bodies and these have to be removed,” she told the news agency Europa Press. “Everything is very difficult.”
Albalat said the number of deaths had climbed to 70 in the small town and was expected to climb in the coming days, as access was secured to underground garages. On Tuesday, in the absence of any sign that this storm would be different from any other, many residents had gone down to their garages to move their cars to higher ground.
In flooded towns such as Alfafar and Sedaví, mayors described feeling abandoned by officials as residents scrambled to shovel mud from their homes and clear streets. In some areas, residents were still trying to secure electricity supply or stable phone service.
On Friday, the catastrophic images emanating from these municipalities coalesced into a show of solidarity, as thousands of volunteers from lesser-affected areas trekked to the hardest-hit areas carrying shovels, brooms and food supplies. On Saturday, thousands more turned up at Valencia’s City of Arts and Sciences, which had been hastily converted into the nerve centre of the clean-up operation.
The mayor of Chiva, where on Tuesday nearly a year’s worth of rain fell in eight hours, said the situation was a “rollercoaster” for the 17,000 residents.
“You see sadness, which is logical given that we’ve lost our town,” Amparo Fort told reporters. “But on the other hand, it’s heartening to see the response that we’ve had from everyone … there is a real, human wave of volunteers, particularly young people.”
Sánchez said 10,000 troops and police would be deployed to help with what he described as “the worst flood our continent has seen so far this century”.
He acknowledged that help had been slow in reaching where it was most needed. “I’m aware that the response we’re mounting isn’t enough. I know that,” he said. “And I know there are severe problems and shortages and that there are still collapsed services and towns buried by the mud where people are desperately looking for their relatives, and people who can’t get into their homes, and houses that have been buried or destroyed by mud. I know we have to do better and give it our all.”
Scientists say the human-driven climate crisis is increasing the length, frequency and intensity of extreme weather events. The warming of the Mediterranean, which increases water evaporation, plays a key role in making torrential rains more severe, experts have also said.
Angry crowd throws mud at Spanish royals and officials during visit to Paiporta
Evelyn Ann-Marie Dom
Sun 3 November 2024
EURONEWS
An angry crowd threw mud and yelled insults at the Spanish royals and government officials upon their arrival to Paiporta, one of the hardest hit towns on the outskirt of Valencia city by last week's floods that killed at least 211 people.
Security officials held up umbrellas for the for the royals and officials to project them from the flying objects, while the crowd yelled insults such as "murderers!" and "get out, get out!"
Local police also had to step in with officers on horseback to keep the crowd at bay.
Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez left the scene following the heckling, with Valencia President Carlos Mazon following shortly after. Queen Letizia and King Felipe stayed behind, with the monarch determined to talk and listen to the residents of Paiporta.
After approximately half an hour, the royals were escorted away by police officials.
Earlier in the day, King Felipe and Queen Letizia met and spoke with emergency response teams of the region. The pair are due to move to Chiva next, another heavily impacted town near the city of Valencia.
This is a developing story.
Crowd hurls mud, insults at Spanish royals, PM on visit to flood zone
An angry crowd threw mud and yelled insults at the Spanish royals and government officials upon their arrival to Paiporta, one of the hardest hit towns on the outskirt of Valencia city by last week's floods that killed at least 211 people.
Security officials held up umbrellas for the for the royals and officials to project them from the flying objects, while the crowd yelled insults such as "murderers!" and "get out, get out!"
Local police also had to step in with officers on horseback to keep the crowd at bay.
Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez left the scene following the heckling, with Valencia President Carlos Mazon following shortly after. Queen Letizia and King Felipe stayed behind, with the monarch determined to talk and listen to the residents of Paiporta.
After approximately half an hour, the royals were escorted away by police officials.
Earlier in the day, King Felipe and Queen Letizia met and spoke with emergency response teams of the region. The pair are due to move to Chiva next, another heavily impacted town near the city of Valencia.
This is a developing story.
Crowd hurls mud, insults at Spanish royals, PM on visit to flood zone
Wafaa ESSALHI
Sun 3 November 2024
The formation of a 'cold drop' weather phenomenon (Pauline PAILLASSA) (Pauline PAILLASSA/AFP/AFP)
Furious locals pelted Spain's royals and premier on Sunday with mud and cries of "murderers!", forcing officials to cut short their visit to the town worst hit by the floods which have killed more than 200.
The angry crowd in the town of Paiporta focused most of its wrath on Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and the head of the Valencia region, both of whom were whisked away by security.
King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia were hit in the face and clothes with mud as they tried to calm the angry crowd, AFP journalists saw.
Broadcast on Spanish television, the extraordinary scenes underscored the depth of the anger in the country over the response to the nation's worst such disaster in decades, with the toll ever rising and hopes for finding survivors ebbing five days on.
The king and queen arrived just after midday at a crisis centre in Paiporta, ground zero for a disaster Sanchez called the second deadliest flood in Europe this century.
But more security guards were soon called to stand between the royals and the rest of the delegation and the angry crowd, whose ire seemed most directed at Sanchez and Valencia region head Carlos Mazon, AFP journalists saw.
While Sanchez and the politicians quickly left, the king and queen spent an hour trying to calm tempers before leaving themselves.
Later public television said that their visit to the flood-hit region had been suspended.
Nearly all the flood deaths have been in the Valencia region, where Spain's meteorological agency on Sunday issued a fresh warning for heavy downpours in the region.
Up to 100 litres per square metre (22 gallons per square yard) of water could fall in places in the province of Castellon and the area surrounding the city of Valencia, the agency forecast.
It also sounded the alarm for torrential rain that may cause flooding in the southern province of Almeria, advising residents not to travel unless strictly necessary.
- 'Towns buried by mud' -
Since Tuesday's torrent of rain and mud swept away vehicles and devastated towns and infrastructure, thousands of security and emergency services have frantically cleared debris and mud in the search for bodies.
Authorities have come under fire over the warning systems before the floods, and stricken residents have complained that the response to the disaster has been too slow.
Mazon himself has faced fierce criticism for waiting until Tuesday evening to issue a phone alert in Valencia, despite his region being under an extreme weather warning since that morning.
"I am aware the response is not enough, there are problems and severe shortages... towns buried by mud, desperate people searching for their relatives... we have to improve," Sanchez said.
With the torrents of muddy water having wrecked towns and swept away cars, restoring order and distributing aid to destroyed towns and villages -- some of which have been cut off from food, water and power since Tuesday -- is a priority.
With Spain deploying an extra 10,000 troops, police and civil guards to the Valencia region, the country was carrying out its largest deployment of military and security force personnel in peacetime, Sanchez said.
"Thank you to the people who have come to help us, to all of them, because from the authorities: nothing," a furious Estrella Caceres, 66, told AFP in the town of Sedavi.
In Chiva Danna Daniella said she had been cleaning her restaurant for three days straight.
She said she was still in shock, haunted by memories of the people trapped by the raging floodwaters "asking for help and there was nothing we could do".
"It drives you crazy. You look for answers and you don't find them."
- 'Swiss cheese' motorways -
With telephone and transport networks severely damaged, establishing a precise figure of missing people is difficult.
Transport Minister Oscar Puente told El Pais daily that certain places would probably remain inaccessible by land for weeks.
Ordinary citizens carrying food, water and cleaning equipment have continued their grassroots initiative to assist the recovery, although authorities have urged people to stay at home to avoid congestion.
On Sunday, the Valencian government limited the number of volunteers authorised to travel to the city's southern suburbs to 2,000 and restricted access to 12 localities.
Despite this thousands took to the streets of the city of Valencia's centre to make way to nearby communes on foot, carrying brooms and shovels to help those affected.
On Sunday, Pope Francis offered his prayers to those hit by the disaster "who are suffering so much these days".
The storm that sparked the floods on Tuesday formed as cold air moved over the warm waters of the Mediterranean and is common for this time of year.
But scientists warn climate change driven by human activity is increasing the ferocity, length and frequency of such extreme weather events.
Emergency services on Sunday updated the toll to 217 people confirmed killed.
It listed 213 dead in the Valencia region, one in Andalusia in the south and three in Castilla-La Mancha neighbouring Valencia, where the body of a woman in her 60s was discovered on Sunday.
Authorities have warned the toll could yet rise, as vehicles trapped in tunnels and underground car parks are cleared.
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