The general in chief of the Military Emergency Unit, Javier Marcos, announced that the Army has already started reconnaissance work to temporarily install four bridges in the municipalities of Cheste, Ribarroja, Picanya and Buñol. Marcos appeared from the Ministry of Defense, accompanied by the Minister, Margarita Robles, after the meeting of the Crisis Committee to monitor the effects of DANA in the Moncloa complex, led by the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez. The general took stock of the state of work after the DANA disaster, mainly in the province of Valencia, and reviewed all actions of the armed forces since day zero of the disaster.
Currently, 8,500 troops continue to be deployed to affected areas, although their numbers rise and fall with replacements. According to the general, “there are already 10,000 soldiers who have intervened and are intervening in the emergency zone” and “2,000 assets” including “helicopters”, “special interaction vehicles”, “drones” and others are also still present . Likewise, work is now focused on the construction of four bridges to improve communication in some of the affected areas. “A very special effort is being made, but we understand that this installation of temporary bridges is essential,” he stressed.
In this sense, the head of the UME explained that he wanted to continue “to help with the cleaning of all the polygons so that the work can be carried out as quickly as possible” and to provide “very special assistance to farmers, in particular to those who have to go pick orange trees or other products to have an outlet. He also indicated that the army will be able to share trucks with farmers to “collect tons of oranges”, since normal trucks “do not flow” in. mud “Let Valencia know that it will count on the military for as long as necessary in the necessary missions, with the priorities to which I referred, cleaning, missing persons, construction of bridges and sewers”, a. he summarized.
Marcos highlighted the need to work in butcheries because “the meat rots and generates a series of problems that lead to public health”, which “worries” the military authorities, which is why work is underway in this direction . “On a small scale in each city and in large companies in industrial areas like in Sedaví, where we removed hundreds of tons that were in an unfortunate situation and could have been the cause of a very significant infectious outbreak. “
Evolution of the work carried out
According to Marcos, so far 1,783 missions of different types have been carried out in the area, although he regretted that the second DANA complicated the work because “the water table is high and with little rain there is had flooding again. “. Regarding the last 15 days of work, the head of the UME presented a map showing all the affected homes and the actions of the UME in each of them. Thus, the general narrated how the efforts were distributed obeying “the nature of the terrain”, starting from the “north of the tragedy” with the overflowing ravines and moving south into the Albufera.
He said troops were expanding both to towns that had requested help and to areas that had not yet done so but thought they might have operational needs. The 5th constitutes the culmination of the “criticality of the work” when 8,500 soldiers and “nearly 17,000 volunteers” are already on the move. Already by the 9th, many “urgent” works were completed, but they “leaned” towards areas where engineers and machines were needed. In the following days, work continued in industrial areas and the construction of bridges began to be evaluated. Marcos showed images of developments over the past ten days and described as “impressive what has been achieved in such a short time”, with the removal of vehicles and cleaning of streets, among other tasks.
Marcos regrets that the “influencers” arrived “before” the army in “an emergency zone that we cannot enter”
“Since the 30th, we have been accumulating cars in certain points of the municipalities to then take them to the fields that the Armed Forces have developed, in particular the sugar units of the Army in collaboration with machines also from certain companies. The next step is the evacuation of these cars from outside the cities to the areas decided by the Valencian Community”, he explained.
Finally, the EMU leader responded to the controversial presence of civilians and “influencers” in emergency areas before army troops, for which they were criticized in the first days after DANA. Marcos regretted that these “influencers” arrived “earlier” in “an emergency zone where one cannot enter and where only the technical director of the emergency authorizes entry.” He also argued that he would not consider taking anyone in without “a basic emergency course” because his “responsibility is that anyone entering an emergency area is fully prepared to save lives and, if possible, to save yours.”
