The death toll from floods in eastern Spain continues to rise, reaching a total of 213 deaths. Most of the victims, 210, are from municipalities in the southern area of ​​Valencia, while the remaining three women were reported in Castile-La Mancha and Andalusia, according to the latest information provided by the Valencia Region Emergency Center. Today, King Felipe VI and Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez will visit the affected areas; in the meantime, 5,000 more soldiers have been sent to support operations on the ground. In total, 7,500 members of the armed forces are involved in the search for the missing, supported by 5,000 police and civil guard officers mobilized by the Ministry of the Interior.

Authorities reported that electricity has been restored to 94% of users, but around 7,000 people remain without electricity and many more without access to drinking water. Five days after the floods, hopes of finding survivors among the missing are increasingly faint. Searches are concentrated in particular in the parking lots of shopping centers and homes that were cut off by the mass of mud. Numerous victims are feared in the parking lot of the Bonair shopping center in Aldaia, where it was possible to extract around 75% of the water that reached heights of four meters in the two basement floors.

Rescue operations are also continuing in the parking lot of the Consum supermarket in Benetusser, where a group of at least twenty people is being sought. The Interior Minister clarified that the 1,900 missing people reported correspond mainly to calls from relatives worried about their loved ones and do not necessarily reflect a real lack of communication.

The priorities remain those of finding survivors and restoring infrastructure to ensure the arrival of aid to the affected populations. The President of the Generalitat has requested the participation of seven ministers of the central government in the Emergency Coordination Center to manage the crisis, despite the controversy related to the delays in alerting the populations about the arrival of the storm.

In addition, movement in the affected areas is limited to emergency vehicles and health workers. Due to the yellow alert issued by the State Meteorological Agency for possible torrential rains, access to the affected municipalities will be prohibited to volunteers in at least eleven locations. The Aemet has warned that rainfall could reach 150 liters per square meter in twelve hours.

Finally, the Department of Health warned of the potential contamination of drinking water and food due to the flooding and highlighted the increased risk of gastrointestinal infections caused by bacteria such as E. coli and Salmonella in situations similar to the current one.