More troops reinforce rescue efforts in flood-hit Spain as public anger mounts

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By David Latona and Raul Cadenas

PAIPORTA, Spain (Reuters) -Another 2,500 soldiers arrived in the flood-hit east of Spain on Monday to reinforce efforts to locate bodies and clear debris, as government officials traded blame over how the worst flooding in decades has been handled and as first aid packages were being readied.

Public anger is mounting over the disaster that has killed at least 217 people with dozens of others still unaccounted for. Almost all of the deaths occurred in the Valencia region and more than 60 in the suburb of Paiporta.

The army sent about 5,000 soldiers over the weekend to help distribute food and water, clean up streets and guard against looters and a further 2,500 would join them, Defence Minister Margarita Robles told state-owned radio RNE.

A warship with 104 marine infantry soldiers as well as trucks with food and water arrived in Valencia port even as a strong hailstorm pummelled Barcelona some 300 km (186 miles) to the north.

On Monday evening, Spanish minister Felix Bolanos from the Socialist Party said Tuesday’s cabinet would declare some of the worst hit villages by the floods in the regions of Valencia, Andalusia, Castile La Mancha and Catalonia as “severely affected areas” so that they can be entitled to emergency funds.

He added that the government would approve on Tuesday a package of relief measures to help people cope with the situation without giving further details.

Later, the regional head of Valencia, Carlos Mazon, said that his region would separately hand out each household 6,000 euros ($6,524) and make available at least 200,000 euros to help each town face urgent spending needs.

In total, Mazon, of the conservative People’s Party, said the region would request from Spain’s central government a first aid package worth around 31.4 billion euros, including funds to reconstruct key infrastructure.

On Monday, airport operator AENA said about 50 flights due to take off from Barcelona’s partially flooded El Prat airport were cancelled or severely delayed, while 17 due to land there were diverted. Some local train services were also cancelled.

Rescuers used drones and water pumps to search and clear underground carparks and garages. They also scanned river mouths where currents may have deposited more bodies.

“With these drones we can send them inside the garages and have a first visual of what’s going on,” police spokesperson Ricardo Gutierrez said.

Opposition politicians accused the left-wing central government of acting too slowly to warn residents and send in rescuers.

Mazon on Monday had previously said the Hydrographic Confederation of Jucar (CHJ), which measures the flow of rivers and ravines for the state, had cancelled a planned alert three times.

But Madrid said the CHJ does not issue flood risk alerts, which are the responsibility of Spain’s regional governments.

DELAYED RESPONSE

Locals criticised late alerts from authorities about the dangers and a perceived delayed response by emergency services.

But General Javier Marcos, commander of the army’s emergency response services, said he had ordered 500 soldiers to be deployed within 15 minutes of seeing the flood warning on Tuesday who were able to enter hard-hit areas.

“The degree of destruction is so great that mobility is limited,” he said. “It is so complex that it requires two things: discipline and patience.”

On Sunday, some residents in Paiporta slung mud at Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and King Felipe and his wife, Queen Letizia, chanting: “murderers, murderers!”

The prime minister was also struck during the protests, Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska said in an interview on TVE, blaming a handful of extremists for the trouble.

“The majority of people gathered are absolutely peaceful people who have lost everything and whose anger we evidently understand,” Grande-Marlaska said.

Locals in Paiporta said anger boiled over because they felt authorities were using them for a photo opportunity.

They denied that the crowd was full of extremists.

Belen, a 50-year-old supermarket cashier who lost both her cars during the flood, said she was angry with both the national and regional governments about how slowly help has arrived.

“That’s what hurts us, that they only come here for a photo,” she said. “They’re all the same dog with different collars. They’re all scum.”

A protest planned in Valencia on Saturday will call for Mazon to step down.

A daily protest in Madrid outside the headquarters of Sanchez’s Socialist party drew more people on Sunday, about 600, due to anger over the floods, according to El Pais newspaper.

The anger vented against all sides reflects a general disillusionment with the political class, analysts at Eurointelligence wrote in a note on Monday. “If the aftermath turns into a big finger-pointing exercise, it will probably deepen that anti-politics sentiment,” it said.

Lack of clarity over the numbers of dead and missing has added to frustration. A landline has been set up for relatives to report the missing, with the government saying “dozens and dozens” are still unaccounted for.

Coroner services on Monday said 190 autopsies had been performed, and 111 people identified.

The midweek torrential rains caused rivers to swell, engulfing streets and ground floors of buildings, and sweeping away cars and masonry in tides of mud.

Sonia Luque, coordinator of the Network of Road Assistance Companies (REAC), said more than 100,000 cars were damaged.

It was the worst flood-related disaster in Europe in five decades. Scientists say extreme weather is more frequent due to climate change. Meteorologists think the warming of the Mediterranean, which increases water evaporation, plays a key role in making torrential rains more severe.

($1 = 0.9196 euros)

(Reporting by Inti Landauro, Susana Vera, Raul Cardenas and David Latona; additional reporting by Jesús Aguado, Emma Pinedo and Joan Faus; Writing by Charlie Devereux; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne, Sharon Singleton and Sandra Maler)