As the hours passed, the worst was confirmed. The death toll from the DANA during its passage through the Valencian Community is at least 51 people. This Tuesday, the town most affected by the storm was Albacete, Letur, where six people are still missing due to flooding. Later, the storm moved east and Wednesday morning was tragic in Valencia.
This morning, the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, urgently convened a meeting of the Crisis Committee to monitor DANA in Moncloa, which will be held this afternoon. Shortly before, the president will make an institutional declaration on the disaster.
This is all we know for the moment about DANA and its consequences:
More than fifty dead in Valencia
In the province of Valencia alone, 51 deaths were recorded due to flooding, a figure that is still provisional. The Valencian Government offered this first assessment through the information received from the different security and emergency agencies and forces.
The process of investigation and identification of victims begins, on a day when Valencia is still waking up with collapsed roads, people awaiting rescue and countless material damage in several parts of the province devastated by the passage of the storm. “The image was Dantesque, like a horror film,” says a resident of Picassent about what he experienced in recent hours. “I didn’t want to die. I got out of the car window and it went down into the ravine,” says Antonio, who was returning from work in Paiporta yesterday afternoon and was trapped by the flood.
In Cullera, 26 people had to be rescued after the Júcar overflowed in several cases. Security and emergency forces, as well as municipal services, continue to rescue more people at this time, which is why they ask the population “to be vigilant and careful”, not to leave their homes and to remove cars from the banks of the river. .
The search for missing people continues in Albacete
On the other hand, the Civil Guard continued throughout the night the search for six unlocated people in Letur with drones equipped with night cameras, following the flood that occurred in this town of Albacete. The night searches having been unsuccessful, a new device has already been prepared and will be deployed this morning on the ground, made up of around seventy soldiers, including agents of the Civil Guard, firefighters, Civil Protection and an Army group. . accompanied by dogs and a helicopter.
The unlocated people are two municipal employees, whose vehicle was swept away by the flood which crossed the urban area of the commune this Tuesday, as well as two other women and a couple with whom they have not yet been able to enter. contact.
Trains between Madrid and Valencia continue to be suspended
The storm caused the suspension of railway lines that connect Madrid to Valencia and the surrounding areas of the capital of the Valencian Community itself. Weather conditions have forced Renfe to maintain the suspension of the Valencia Cercanías service on all its lines until further notice. Trains on the C1 València-Gandia, C2 València-Moixent, C3 València-Utiel and C6 València-Castelló lines are not running.
As for the roads concerned, the main accesses to Valencia are still closed at several points on the A-3 and the A-7.
New storms expected this Wednesday
The damage is not over. This Wednesday, new storms are expected to shake the country again and will aggravate, as could be expected, the disaster of flooding and overflowing rivers in recent hours due to torrential rains. Although the situation begins to ease this Wednesday, eight autonomous communities still remain on alert for heavy rains, three of them, Andalusia, Castile-La Mancha and Catalonia, with significant risk, at orange level, according to the National Meteorological Agency (AEMET).
The Valencian Community has even reached the red level with extreme risk, although today it will reduce the level to yellow. The new rains, which will be less intense, will however continue to increase river flows and complicate the situation, which is already quite delicate in itself. Firefighters and emergency services have reported that they still do not have access to all points where help is needed.
AEMET is already talking about “the most harmful cold drop of the century” in the Valencian Community.
