Wearing a field uniform and a backpack containing the essentials, 800 soldiers were deployed all day yesterday in the Valencian towns of Utiel, Requena, Chiva, Alaquas, Torrent, Paiporta, Algemesí, Benetússer, Massanassa, Ribarroja and in Letur (Albacete), to support the 1,200 soldiers of the Military Emergency Unit (UME). As soon as they reached the affected areas, they jumped out of the vehicles they were traveling in and got to work. Some took shovels and stiff-bristled brooms and began clearing mud from the streets while others began cleaning debris from the streets and inside the destroyed houses. Others devoted themselves to rescue and food distribution. In the towns they received them with words of gratitude; They were screaming for help since it stopped raining. Standard Related News No Army reinforcements already working to recover Ground Zero after disaster No DANA death toll rises to 202 in Valencia province alone Toni JiménezThe situation in the country. DANA-affected areas have overwhelmed local authorities and central government. Apart from the EMU, which worked from the first minute, Defense only deployed troops yesterday, three days after the floods. The crisis committee led by the Generalitat Valenciana, in coordination with that of the central government, developed a plan which made it possible to deploy nearly 2,000 military personnel at the end of yesterday (among the 1,200 from the UME already present), and the other 800 soldiers who arrived yesterday) in the towns of the Valencian Community which were the epicenter of an unprecedented disaster in the last century “Frustration” of the Army “If necessary, the 120,000 soldiers of the Army will be there,” said the Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, in the morning on “La Hora de la 1”. He said the Army “has been there since day one and will be there by all means.” “It is not a problem of numbers, but of capabilities,” he explained, while recognizing that it was useless to send soldiers without an action plan, but in the afternoon, in an interview with “La Sexta”, Robles revealed “frustration” of the army for “not being able to work in more places” and thus reopened the confrontation between the government and the Generalitat Valenciana, reproaching its president Carlos Mazón for having limited the actions of the UME to only the area of Utiel-Requena and that he had not previously asked the government to deploy the full capabilities of the army. After Mazón tried to tone down Alberto Núñez Feijóo’s attacks on the government last Thursday, calling Pedro Sánchez “dear President” and hugging Fernando Grande-Marlaska upon his arrival in Valencia yesterday, Robles again raised the scene of tension at a time when Valencians are demanding unity between governments so that there is adequate coordination to put an end to this social emergency. Despite this context, Robles admitted to having missed “that, from the beginning, from the Emergency Committee of the Integrated Operational Cooperation Center (Cecopi) of the Generalitat Valenciana, either the UME had been authorized to act more, or “they would have deployed more resources.” When asked why the Armed Forces had not deployed more troops from the start, the minister revealed that she was “without a doubt” asking herself the same question. “The military were all ready to intervene, but you know that the direction of the emergency corresponds to the Generalitat, it does not correspond and does not correspond to the Spanish government”, he declared. He also pointed out that “many soldiers in leave asked to join” to help because “the Army needs to be with its people, because many of them are from Valencia and have their families, there are several who died in their families “: “They are the first to sometimes worry about why this deployment has not been authorized in other, larger areas of the Utiel-Requena region. At eight o’clock in the morning, more than 500 soldiers from the three armies arrived. municipalities concerned. Throughout the afternoon the troops expanded to more than 250 soldiers, most of them engineers from Rey Alfonso’s Department of Defense; by dawn two buses with 100 marines and a heavy column with ten trucks, four light vehicles and a Vamtac loaded. with 31 marines leaving for the Valencian Community. These troops came from the San Fernando Navy Third, the Air Force Air Deployment Support Squadron, Zaragoza, and the Alcantarilla Parachute Squadron. The army also deployed the Signal Regiment, the Information Operations Regiment, the Lusitania Parachute Cavalry Regiment and the Zaragoza Parachute Regiment, as well as the Bétera Military Police and the Cavalry Regiment. The army is sending help. Today, it is expected that new troops will be added, among which, as reported by the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, 500 additional soldiers will arrive in the affected areas. During the Army’s deployment, the Air Force Quartermaster Logistics Center (COIN) prepared pallets of essential materials. From the Army Air Forces, in Colmenar, two CH 47 Chinooks left with water, campaign rations and clothing from Cáritas Prevention and Awareness. EMU sources consulted by ABC reported that this disaster “could have been minor” if. the ravines were “clean and healthy”, a maintenance that should have been carried out by the Generalitat. When dirt and waste accumulate in ravines, “beaver dams, which create traffic jams” are created: “When they break under the force of the water, a water break much stronger is also generated. Added to this cleanup problem is another, “the fact that construction has been allowed in flood-prone areas”: “The state must take measures to ensure that this does not happen and the first thing it must do is to prevent construction in these areas. “The disaster, he insists, would have been less “with earlier prevention and greater awareness.”
