Four days after the deadly floods suffered by the Levante, The Government still does not know the number of missing peopleafter receiving help 2,500 complaintsof which an estimated 600 were resolved as they appeared safe. The latest information provided by the Minister of the Interior himself, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, certifies ignorance. He gave it this Friday evening, when the official death toll had just been updated: 207 deaths by DANA until last midnight.
Many people desperately cry out wherever they can for loved ones they know nothing about. They do this by trying to contact Emergencies by telephone, they also do it at street level, in front of the cameras and microphones of the media that they encounter during their wanderings, often displaying a photo of the person they are are looking for. But Authorities say they don’t know how many people are missing and how many are wanted.in an information blackout in this particular unusual nowadays in countries barely comparable to Spainwhereas it is normal that, in the face of tragedies, data is offered not only on the dead but also on the missing. Even more so if the days already spent in this matter have passed.
“It is impossible to know the number of missing people and it would not be prudent for me to give a figure.” This is how Minister Grande-Marlaska responded to the question that was asked on this subject in the SER chain. In this tragedy that Spain is suffering, instead of talking about disappearances, the authorities prefer to use a different parameter, that of the telephone calls received by the 112 emergency service in which a disappearance due to floods was reported. Without further ado. And this is where any official version of the matter ends, as the devastated area faces its fourth day this Saturday after the deadly avalanches of water and mud which cost lives and property.
“The data of 1,900 missing people has not been taken into account. These are the calls that 112 receives saying that they cannot find their loved ones, but this is mainly due to communication problems,” said the minister this Saturday evening. But in the strict sense, even this statement does not correspond to reality, because the emergency number that has been reported since the tragedy is 2,500 calls regarding missing persons, in round numbers. The 1,900 would be the reported and unsolved cases, that is, not counting the missing people who were found alive.
“Moreover – Marlaska continued this Saturday evening – people who finally reunite with their loved ones do not report it, so these predictions cannot be made. Assessments in this sense would mislead us and would not generate trust,” Grande-Marlaska explained.
The Valencian Generalitat supports the position adopted in this regard by the Minister of the Interior. Questioned by OKDIARIO, sources from the regional administration spoke this Friday afternoon in terms similar to those that Grande-Marlaska used a few hours later in this radio interview. From there, absolute unknown. Four days after the tragedy, there is still no official number of missing people, while the death toll continues to rise as bodies are found in a scene of destruction where complaints from those who call for insufficient aid. covering the most basic vital needs, such as drinking water and food, crucial in particular for the most vulnerable: babies and the elderly.
