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The Spanish government will send Another 10,000 soldiers to the Valencian Communityin the east of the country, where 211 people have already died due to severe floods this week, which will lead the executive to approve on Tuesday declaring the area severely affected by an emergency.

Head of the Government of Spain, Pedro Sanchez, He announced this on Saturday in an official statement, in which he specified that another 5,000 soldiers would be sent (of which 4,000 today) and the same number of police and civil guards.

Largest troop deployment in peacetime

This is “the largest deployment of state security forces and the Armed Forces Corps that has ever been made in our country in peacetime“, as he assured.

The remaining 5,000 civil guards and police will double the number of agents of these two bodies in the area, which will soon reach 10,000. ensure safety on the streetswhich is a priority, according to the president, who has ordered 82 arrests for burglaries, burglaries and burglaries at businesses, flooded homes or submerged vehicles.

“Unfortunately, there are people who take advantage of the situation to commit criminal acts,” commented the president, who appeared in deep mourning.

In addition to these troops, the government will deploy a naval landing ship with operations and a fleet of support vehicles, which will arrive at the port of Valencia in the next few hours.

And, he admits, there are still “serious problems and shortcomings” such as “collapsed services, municipalities buried in mud, desperate people looking for their relatives, people who cannot access their homes, houses destroyed and covered with mud.”

Declaration of Severely Affected Area

The next Council of Ministers on Tuesday will approve the declaration of a severely affected area due to a civil protection emergency in those places most affected by the dana. These will be the territories of the Community of Valencia, Castile-La Mancha, Andalusia, Catalonia and Aragon.

An inter-ministerial commission will be created that will work to urgently and quickly facilitate the recovery and economic restart of the affected areas.

From the Ministry of Finance and from the first vice-president of the government, the regional executive will be given the opportunity to make all emergency expenditures it needs “without any restrictions on resources.”

One hundred temporary positions have been created that will join government units and the government delegation of the Valencian Community starting Monday to speed up the processing of aid.

In addition, the government has asked the European Commission for assistance from the European Solidarity Fund and the use of other community support resources.

94% of power supply restored

As explained, 94% of the affected power points have been restored (from 240,000 affected points to less than 14,000), and half of the 550,000 downed telephone lines have been restored.

Service has also been restored on lines V30 and V31, emergency traffic on the A3 motorway between Cuenca and Valencia has been restored, and work on commuter lines C1 and C2 is expected to be completed over the weekend.

More than 2,000 damaged cars and trucks, as well as hundreds of tons of debris and dirt, have already been removed.

High-speed rail services have also been restored between Barcelona and Valencia, as well as the C5 and C6 commuter lines, and tunnel repairs are underway on the high-speed line between Madrid and Valencia, as well as the C1 and C1 commuter lines. C2, which is expected to be completed over the weekend.

Thousands of liters of bottled water and food rations were distributed, and the Generalitat of Valencia was provided with five water treatment plants, water tanks, 200 portable toilets and 4,000 cooking and hygiene kits.

Forestry crews were deployed to help clear canals and banks and restore damaged water infrastructure, with a total of 300 troops deployed over the weekend.

EFE