Fresh protests were called in Spain on Friday as the shellshocked country marked one month since its worst floods in a generation killed 230 people.
Anger has swept the European nation after the October 29 catastrophe tossed cars, wrecked infrastructure and destroyed homes and businesses, particularly in the eastern Valencia region.
Telephone alerts reached some residents when water was already raging through towns, while several municipalities went for days without state help and relied on volunteers for food, water and cleaning equipment.
The authorities’ handling of the disaster has prompted trade unions, associations and local organisations to call for rallies in the hardest-hit areas on Friday.
They could take the form of symbolic actions at 8:11 pm (1911 GMT), the time when the Valencia regional authorities issued an alert more than 12 hours after a warning by the national weather service.
Another protest is expected in Spain’s third city Valencia on Saturday. A first demonstration drew 130,000 furious citizens demanding the resignation of regional leader Carlos Mazon.
Popular outrage boiled over in the ground-zero town of Paiporta on November 3 when survivors hurled mud at King Felipe VI, Queen Letizia, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and Mazon during a visit.
Sanchez and Mazon were evacuated and their fleeting unity has collapsed, with the left-wing central government and the conservative regional administration trading blame for the handling of the floods.
– Irreparable damage –
Thousands of troops, police, firefighters and volunteers continue to clear debris, repair damage and extract mud from garages, basements and car parks in the traumatised Valencia region.
In Paiporta, one of many places far from normal, a thin layer of smelly reddish dust has replaced the torrents of mud.
“There are many things that are destroyed and won’t be able to be rebuilt,” said Ignacio Trenor Dalmau, a 26-year-old unemployed architect.
“Loads of businesses” will not reopen because the investment needed for repairs will not make economic sense, he told AFP as he helped clean the garage of his building.
But “that early tension is calmer because we also see that we’re slowly moving forwards,” said Dalmau, citing the gratitude people felt towards the volunteers.
Economy Minister Carlos Cuerpo on Thursday reeled off a dizzying list of damaged property according to insurance data, including 69,000 homes, 125,000 vehicles and 12,500 businesses.
The government has scrambled to put together aid packages collectively worth 16.6 billion euros ($17.5 billion) in grants and loans to help stricken citizens piece back together their shattered lives.
“There is still a lot of work to do,” Sanchez conceded in parliament this week.
The Bank of Spain has warned the disaster could wipe as much as 0.2 percent off the country’s growth in the final quarter of 2024.
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