By David Latona and Charlie Devereux
PAIPORTA/MADRID (Reuters) -At least 89 people remain missing after deadly floods in eastern Spain, the regional judicial authorities in Valencia said on Tuesday, and Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said he was earmarking 10.6 billion euros ($11.6 billion) to help victims.
The number includes only those who have been reported missing by family members that have also provided personal information and biological samples to allow for their identification, the Superior Court of Justice of Valencia Region said in a statement. It added that there could be more cases of people who have disappeared whose details have not yet been registered.
More than 200 people were confirmed to have died after heavy rains last week caused waterways to overflow, creating flash floods that surged through suburbs south of the city of Valencia, sweeping away cars and bridges and flooding properties and underground car parks.
“There are still missing persons to be located, homes and businesses destroyed, buried under the mud and many people suffering severe shortages,” Sanchez said in a press conference in Madrid earlier on Tuesday. “We have to keep working.”
At least 217 people died in Valencia, Castile-La Mancha and Andalusia, but only 133 have been identified so far.
The court said coroners had performed 195 autopsies and that 62 bodies were still pending identification. Spain’s national guard on Tuesday asked relatives of people missing to provide DNA samples to identify bodies.
A research vessel from the national scientific body CSIC will reach Valencia on Nov. 9 to help in the search efforts, the Science Ministry said on Tuesday. The vessel has technology to obtain detailed images of the seafloor and explore hard-to-reach areas, it said. There have been suggestions that some of the missing people could have been swept down rivers and out to sea.
The aid will include 838 million euros in direct cash to small businesses and freelance workers affected by the disaster and 5 billion euros of state-guaranteed loans. The national government will finance 100% of the clean-up costs incurred by local governments and half of the repairs to infrastructure, Sanchez said.
More than 100,000 cars were damaged by the floods, Sonia Luque, coordinator of the Network of Road Assistance Companies (REAC), said, while damages to businesses in towns hit by floods could rise to over 10 billion euros.
‘IT’S A TSUNAMI’
Hector, a police inspector speaking in Paiporta, one of the worst-hit neighbourhoods, said he had experienced plenty of flooding in nearby Alicante but nothing like this.
“This isn’t a flash flood – it’s a tsunami,” Hector, who declined to give his last name, said.
In the face of criticism and anger at the slow response to the disaster, Sanchez said the government had deployed nearly 15,000 police and military to help clear flood-affected areas, along with hundreds of forestry officials, forensic scientists, customs agents and heavy machinery to clear roads and rubble.
Defending the government’s response, Sanchez said he had not called a state of emergency, which would have given Madrid control of the crisis, because it would have been less efficient.
He said personnel had been ready to be deployed from the first minute but had required the approval of the regional government run by the conservative People’s Party.
Valencia’s regional leader Carlos Mazon said on Monday the delay in warning people was caused by the Hydrographic Confederation of Jucar (CHJ), which measures the flow of rivers and ravines for the state, cancelling a planned alert three times.
The CHJ fired back that it does not issue flood risk alerts, which are the responsibility of Spain’s regional governments.
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(Reporting by Charlie Devereux, David Latona. Additional reporting by Emma Pinedo and Jesus Aguado, editing by Inti Landauro, Aislinn Laing, Sharon Singleton and David Gregorio)
