SEDAVI, Spain: Francisco Murgui went out to try to salvage his motorbike when the water started to rise. He never came back.
One week after catastrophic flooding devasted eastern Spain, María Murgui still holds out hope that her father is alive and among the unknown number of the missing.
“He was like many people in town who went out to get their car or motorbike to safety,” the 27-year-old told The Associated Press. “The flash flood caught him outside, and he had to cling to a tree in order to escape drowning. He called us to tell us that he was fine, that we shouldn’t worry.”
But when María set out into the streets of Sedaví to try to rescue him from the water washing away everything in its path, he was nowhere to be found.
“He held up until 1 in the morning,” she said. “By 2, I went outside with a neighbor and a rope to try to locate him. But we couldn’t find him. And since then, we haven’t heard anything about him.”
At least 218 have been confirmed dead after a deluge caused by heavy rains late on Oct. 29 and the next morning swamped entire communities, mostly in Spain’s Valencia region, catching most off guard. Regional authorities have been heavily criticized for having issued alerts to mobile phones some two hours after the disaster had started.
Authorities have yet to any give an estimate of the missing seven days on. Spanish state broadcaster RTVE, however, shows a steady stream of appeals by people who are searching for family members who are not accounted for.
María Murgui herself has posted a missing person’s message on social media with a photo of her father, a 57-year-old retiree.
“This is like riding a rollercoaster. Sometimes I feel very bad and sometimes I feel better. I try to stay positive,” she said. “This truly is madness. We don’t know what else to do. Neither does anybody else in town.”
Central government passes relief package
While many search for their loved ones, the gargantuan recovery efforts in Sedaví and dozens of other communities slowly moved forward.
To aid those in need, the central government approved a 10.6-billion-euro relief package for 78 communities on Tuesday. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez compared it to the measures taken during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The package includes direct payments of 20,000 euros to 60,000 euros to owners of damaged homes, among other financial aid for businesses and municipal governments.
“We have a lot of work left to do, and we know it,” Sánchez said.
Sánchez said that he will ask the European Union to help pay for the relief, saying “it is time for the European Union to help.”
Many people are still without basic goods amid scenes of devastation
The floods have left behind post-apocalyptic scenes.
Street after street in town after town is still covered with thick brown mud and mounds of ruined belongings, clumps of rotting vegetation, and wrecked vehicles. A stench arises from the muck.
In many places, people still face shortages of basic goods, and lines form at impromptu emergency kitchens and stands handing out food. Water is running again but authorities say it is not fit for drinking.
The ground floors of thousands of homes have been ruined. It is feared that inside some of the vehicles that the water washed away or trapped in underground garages there could be bodies waiting to be recovered.
Thousands of soldiers are working with firefighters and police reinforcements in the immense emergency response. Officers and troops are searching in destroyed homes, the countless cars strewn across highways, streets, or lodged in the mud in canals and gorges.
Authorities are worried about other health problems caused by the aftermath of the deadliest natural disaster in Spain’s recent history. They have urged people to get tetanus shots and to treat any wounds to prevent infections and to clean the mud from their skin. Many people wear face masks.
Thousands of volunteers are helping out, filling the void left by authorities. But the frustration over the crisis management boiled over on Sunday when a crowd in hard-hit Paiporta hurled mud and other objects at Spain’s royals, Sánchez and regional officials when they made their first visit to the epicenter of the flood damage.
Sánchez’s national government is set to announce a new package of relief on Tuesday.
A week after Spain’s floods, families hold out hope that loved ones are not among the dead
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A week after Spain’s floods, families hold out hope that loved ones are not among the dead
- At least 218 have been confirmed dead after a deluge caused by heavy rains late on Oct. 29
- Authorities have yet to any give an estimate of the missing seven days on
Furious farmers roll hundreds of tractors into Paris in fresh protests
- “We won’t leave without measures that allow us to catch our breath a little,” said another protester, Guillaume Moret
PARIS: Around 350 tractors rolled into Paris on Tuesday, driving down the Champs-Elysees avenue and setting up camp near the parliament building, as farmers protested a litany of woes including a trade deal the EU has struck with four South American countries.
The protests reflect a deep sense of malaise afflicting France’s agricultural sector, with the planned signing of an accord between the EU and the Mercosur bloc seen as the last straw.
French farmers have complained of climate and economic uncertainties and have since December staged protests and set up roadblocks over the government’s handling of a lumpy skin disease outbreak.
BACKGROUND
The protests reflect a deep sense of malaise afflicting France’s agricultural sector, with the planned signing of an accord between the EU and the Mercosur bloc seen as the last straw.
“We’re at the end of our tether,” said one of the activists, Guillaume Moret, 56.
“We haven’t made any money from our farms for three years. Politicians are incapable of giving us any direction,” said the head of the FNSEA union for the region of Ile-de-France around Paris.
The FNSEA, France’s leading agricultural union, and another union, Jeunes Agriculteurs, are demanding “concrete and immediate action” from the government.
Arriving from towns around Paris but also from the Hauts-de-France region of northern France, the protesters parked their tractors not far from parliament’s lower house, the National Assembly, in central Paris.
“The peasant revolt continues,” read a banner unfurled in front of the legislature.
In an apparent attempt to pacify the protesters, Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu has allowed the activists to set up camp near the National Assembly building, a source close to the matter said.
Government spokesperson Maud Bregeon told broadcaster TF1 that “dialogue” with farmers continued.
The first convoy of about fifteen tractors rolled into the French capital shortly before 6:00 am (0500 GMT). Joined by dozens of others, they drove down the Champs-Elysees honking their horns.
“We won’t leave without measures that allow us to catch our breath a little,” said another protester, Guillaume Moret.
Some, equipped with trailers, had brought mattresses and duvets.
Several days before the planned signing of the EU-Mercosur agreement in Paraguay, the FNSEA union reiterated its opposition to the deal and also listed several national “priorities” to be defended on Tuesday.
The union is calling on the government to address a number of issues including wolf predation and the use of fertilizers.
French police said some 400 protesters had gathered near the building housing the National Assembly.
Most of the European Union’s 27 nations back the Mercosur trade deal, which supporters argue is crucial to boost exports, help the continent’s ailing economy and foster diplomatic ties at a time of global uncertainty.
The deal, more than 25 years in the making, would create one of the world’s largest free-trade areas, boosting commerce between the EU
and the Mercosur bloc comprising Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina and Uruguay.
It would see the European Union export machinery, chemicals and pharmaceuticals with lowered tariffs applied.
But farmers in France and several other countries fear being undercut by an influx of cheap beef and other agricultural products from South America.
Thousands of farmers in France and Ireland staged protests over the weekend.
In France, politicians across the divide have also been up in arms against the deal, which they view as an assault on the country’s influential farming sector.
Last week, protesters from Coordination Rurale, the second largest union, also brought their tractors into Paris.
