Armando G. Tejeda
Correspondent
La Jornada Newspaper
Friday, November 8, 2024, p. 20
Madrid. The Spanish and Valencian governments and political parties intensified their battle to shift blame among themselves for errors in the management of the natural disaster that occurred in Valencia nine days ago, while rescue teams and the thousands of volunteers still deployed in the affected area They located the lifeless body of a five-year-old boy, originally from the city of Chiva. The discovery shook a society greatly affected by the tragedy, in which there are already 219 deaths and 93 missing.
They had been combing the area of Chiva and Loriguilla for several days to find the whereabouts of several missing people from the town, including the five-year-old boy, located by the canine rescue team in an area flooded with mud and close to a highway. It is suspected that the force of the water dragged his body several hundred meters.
The child is the 219th fatal victim, while they continue to search for 93 people, the formal identification of 54 bodies is missing at the Forensic Anatomical Institute of Valencia.
In addition, it was reported that according to a first study on damage, it is estimated that there are around 4,600 buildings affected by the isolated depression at high levels (DANA), in an area of 571 square kilometers and where more than a third of the Properties suffered between 50 and 150 centimeters of flooding. Regarding economic losses in agriculture, Valencia’s primary sector, these are estimated at 1,89 million euros, according to the Valencian Farmers Association (AVA-Asaja). It is also estimated that the damage to agricultural crops pending harvest amounts to 278 million and the most affected production is citrus fruits (192 million), followed by persimmons (54 million), vegetables (24.8 million) and avocados (7.2 million). .
The police reported that the number of detainees for participating in acts of looting or theft in the affected towns rose to 227, who by order of the Prosecutor’s Office were placed in prison awaiting what the judge on duty decides.
The Minister of Science of the Spanish government, Diana Morant, who is also the leader of the Spanish Socialist Workers Party in Valencia, pointed out to the regional government the disasters of crisis management: The account of the facts is incontestable. They were not attended to adequately and the responsibilities of those who did not do their job well will have to be resolved..
The official was unaware of the alert system
Furthermore, the Minister of the Interior of the autonomous government, Salomé Pradas, of the right-wing Popular Party, acknowledged that she found out on the same day of the crisis, a few minutes before, of the existence of the alert system to notify the population about this type of situation.
