Spain More than 100,000 volunteers on their way to Spanish villages

According to media reports, more than 100,000 volunteers have gathered in the Mediterranean metropolis of Valencia in an act of willingness to help after the severe storms in Spain. Buses organized by the regional government were to take them in shifts to the severely devastated villages around Valencia to help with the clean-up work, as reported by the Europapress news agency.

Spain's head of government Pedro Sánchez announced after a situation meeting that at least 211 people had died in Tuesday's storms, most of them in the Valencia region. Many people are still missing and the number of deaths is expected to rise.

Government sends more aid workers to the affected areas

The head of government now wants to send a total of 10,000 additional emergency personnel to the affected areas in order to speed up the recovery and clean-up work. Accordingly, 5,000 soldiers are to be deployed this weekend to reinforce the 2,000 military personnel already on site, as reported by RTVE. The deployment of 5,000 police officers and members of the Guardia Civil police unit is also planned.

Many of the villages are covered in mud, with cars, furniture and other household items still piled on top of each other in the streets. According to the authorities, most of the power supply has now been restored.

Coordination center begins work

The first volunteers left the city this morning in buses and will return in the afternoon, after which further groups will be taken to the flooded areas, as Europapress further reported. Only yesterday, the Valencia regional government had set up a coordination center, which began work this morning.

At the same time, volunteers were called upon not to drive towards the villages in their own cars so as not to block the roads for rescue workers or get stuck themselves. The regional government had severely restricted driving on important roads until Sunday evening so that emergency services could drive freely.

SDA