By Alyssa McMurtry
OVIEDO, Spain (AA) - The confirmed death toll from last week’s floods in Spain has risen to 223, the country’s transport minister announced Friday.
A further 78 people are still missing, although 48 of the bodies recovered have yet to be identified, Transport Minister Oscar Puente posted on social media platform X.
On Oct. 29, historic rainfall, particularly in the province of Valencia, caused rivers to burst and widespread flooding. The huge quantities of water rushed toward the Mediterranean Sea, causing tsunami-like waters to rapidly flood towns and cities.
Although some mayors had warned about the flooding, many residents were caught off guard. The Valencian government only released an alert to cell phones after 8.00 pm local time – after the deadliest surge was already receding.
Spanish daily El Pais reported Friday that President of Valencia Carlos Mazon was having a long lunch with a journalist until around 6.00 pm on the day of the flood.
As a consequence, he was two and a half hours late to the emergency meeting where authorities were discussing the already severe flooding in the region, according to El Diario.
On Saturday, protests are planned to express outrage about the political management of the biggest natural disaster in recent Spanish history.
Meanwhile, the gargantuan cleanup efforts continue in the affected area. In the province of Valencia, 75 municipalities and 450,000 hectares (1,111,974 acres) of land have been affected. According to the Valencian government, that’s nearly the same size as all of Spain’s Balearic Islands.
Ten days after the disaster, most of the area remains covered in mud and debris.
Despite the work of countless volunteers, Spain’s largest-ever peacetime deployment of military personnel (8,500 agents) and around 10,000 national police, dozens of people are still being rescued each day, according to government figures.
So far, Spain’s government has offered €10.6 billion ($11.4 billion) in loans and aid to help rebuild the devastated area.
The floods were caused by a storm system that lingered over Spain for more than a week, causing flooding in other areas such as Cadiz, Barcelona, and Girona.