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For those who live elsewhere in Spain, your town or a nearby town may have cultural centre probably called Casa de Valencia or something similar organising a collection for food, clothes, etc...

I see the politicking between central and devolved government has finally allowed all of 500 regular army members to join the UME. Obviously a lot more is going to be needed, I really hope it won't take days before another 500 are allowed to join.

If you saw Horizonte on Cuatro last night (it's easy to forget that Iker Jimenez is also a real journalist), things appeared substantially worse than what was shown on the on the usual news programs.

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People have been videoing throughout and these show how bad it was during the deluge and are now filming the reality of the aftermath. Cars, mud, sticks, rubbish bins etc all piled up on top of each other. The services are all working hard but it is going to take a lot of time for any form of normality to return in these areas.

My town was lucky in so far as the flooding appears to have been mainly on the industrial estate and all of the roads surrounding us. Nobody could get in or out of the town so the surgery and the schools had to be closed. My town hall have been brilliant at keeping us all informed on WhatsApp.

Rosemary

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Just seen an encouraging report on BBC World about volunteers and efforts to clear up - but still shocking to see the devastation and to hear the latest death toll.

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There are some wonderful videos on social media showing the volunteers gathering together, walking to an area and also of them at work trying to clear the muddy water. I hope that the warnings from the Guardia Civil about not driving to the areas affected are being heeded because as usual with any incident such as this the sightseers are unwelcome and a hinderance.

Many towns have been organising lorries to take supplies to the stricken areas so that individuals can help in a sensible manner without becoming a problem to the services. It is heart warming to see how much the people rally around to assist in whatever way that they can. Whether this is helping with the clear up, providing clothing, food and water or providing financial donations, each and every actions is valuable.

Rosemary

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When I arrived at our little village supermarket this morning people were queueing up to buy food etc to donate - then we all took our purchases around to the Casa de cultura and helped load them into vans to be taken down to the main collection point and transported up to Valencia this afternoon - I hope it all arrives and helps the people affected most by this disaster.

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There is a lack of younger people in my town at the moment because they have either gone to the nearby towns or to Valencia City to help. La 1 is running a programme showing the clean up. They are talking to professionals and volunteers in all the different areas that the work is occurring.. Volunteers are told to wear masks and gloves as it is a dangerous job doing this type of clean up. Volunteers are working alongside firemen and the army. Saddest sight is the firemen searching for the dead. One scene showed them discretely removing 8 dead people from a garage The loss of life is so, so sad.

Rosemary

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A bit of good news on the N332 page.

A person has just been rescued from inside her car where she was for three days stuck in an underpass in the Valencian town of Benetússer.
There is hope for the families of the other missing people!

Rosemary

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Let's hope for more miracles!

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Poor lady - 3 days!!!

BBC reporting -

Woman rescued after three days trapped inside car published at 17:27

17:27A woman has been rescued from her car after flash floods trapped her inside the vehicle for three days, the head of the Civil Protection in the Valencian Community says.

Martín Pérez confirmed the woman was found in Benetússer, a municipality 29 minutes south of Valencia. Pérez adds she was then taken to hospital.

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Thousands more troops are being despatched to Valencia, in the biggest peacetime deployment in Spain's history.

Spain floods disaster: 5,000 more troops drafted in to deal with aftermath | Spain | The Guardian

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BBC just announced 10,000!

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10.000 combined number of troops and police.

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As reported by N332 in my post 3 hours earlier. Would have been lovely if this had been another survivor but sadly it is not.

Rosemary

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In a short break from the cleaning a whole street of workers sang the Valencian Anthem, lovely to hear them singing with such vigour.

Rosemary

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Starting the fifth day and I can't believe that the suburbs outside of Valencia still don't have the military. 10-15km outside of Valencia city and they're still like they were on first day. I really hope this has political repercussions, unfortunately it could very well be more votes for Vox (those that wanted to get rid of Aemet).

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The size of this tragedy is so massive that it is literally impossible to coordinate and to plan a big enough response. I was watching this unfold on Tuesday morning from about 6.00am. I was warning folk that something unbelievable was happening but people just seemed to think it was just a case of bad flooding. Tuesday at my work was a Halloween party and no one was really taking it seriously. It was only by the end of Wednesday that people realized what had happened. It is only by Friday that it has become clear how much planning is really needed and given that the local communidad of PP and Vox had actually dismantled the original emergency respons plans hasn't helped so I don't see why people would vote for Vox who actually deny climate change!

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I had become very fed up with all of the short videos on social media that showed silly little set pieces being acted out. But the videos of the flooding from the beginning has provided a huge insight into how rapidly cars were swept away. Now the videos show everyone pulling together to rectify the situation. Co-ordinating this is a logistical nightmare of a huge proportion.

Many town halls have been castigated for the lack of warnings about the weather prior to this happening and for their lack of immediate response to the event afterwards. My town hall was very forward thinking about the strength of the storms and had cancelled all social events. The warnings received were good and informative and this has continued throughout. Personally I believe that this is because the vast majority of the people in the town hall are locals which makes them well connected to the citizens at an emotional level so they provide the human touch. As soon as the storms began I was receiving countless messages from them and this has continued the whole time.

Rosemary

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The issue about the timing of warnings will no doubt be debated in the coming months. What we do know is that even the experts couldn't know the level of destruction nor the quantity of water that would be deposited in such a limited area. That couldn't be known because they aren't able to monitor things like water saturation levels in the atmosphere, well at least not in real time. So blame is not a good way to deal with this. What is needed is the construction of a new response plan to deal with this size of flooding. What is inevitable is it is going to happen again ( like the fires) and people need to not think that it is simply a blip. The other issue is cost. They say this will take nearly half the year to remedy things maybe more - as at the moment Valencia is quite simply switched off to nearly all commercial activity. So economically this is a big blow.
They are also considering looking at the issue of cars as one of the primary problems is car debris which is hampering operations. Plus many who lost their lives were either in cars or went to garages to move their cars. Alsoany vehicle are so big that is also an issue.

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. Las autoridades identifican 160 ARPSIs en las cuencas mediterráneas de Andalucía, 46 en la cuenca del Ebro, 42 en las cuencas interiores de Cataluña, 30 en la del Júcar, 22 en la del Segura, en las que se extienden poblaciones desde Mojácar en Almería, Murcia o Lorca; Elche, Denia o Santa Pola en Alicante o Gandía y Sagunto en Valencia, hasta el Delta del Ebro, que donde las zonas de riesgo de inundación se remontan mucho más al interior y al norte, hasta Lleida Tudela (Navarra) .

This was in today's paper. These are areas that are said to be high risk areas for future flooding from DANAs

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ARPSI stands for what?

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Another post from N332. Frightening to think about how many people have been lost in there.

BONAIRE Shopping Centre PARKING https://static.xx.fbcdn.net/images/e...1/16/1f17f.png (Aldaia - Valencia)
This is currently the most critical point in the city as it is a 60,000 square metre complex, with around 2,800 parking spaces in a single-storey basement, and with a height of four metres.
It is currently completely flooded and unfortunately numerous fatalities are expected to be found inside.
Firefighters have been working for 2 days/24 hours to remove the water from its interior.
Our thoughts with the families

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Official message about the restrictions set for today.

Ministry of Environment, Infrastructure and Territory
Restrictions of movement of non-residents in the areas most affected by the DANA for Sunday 3 November.
The municipalities affected by the restrictions are
Aldaia
Alaquà s
Picanya
Sedaví
Paiporta
Benetússer
Alfafar
Massanassa
Catarroja
Albal
Beniparrell

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Volunteers appear to be defying the ban to return to the areas. Whilst I understand why they are doing this I have read somewhere (sorry cannot find it now) that the ban was partly to protect them from the consequences of more rain today. If there are further difficulties they could well be causing a delay to the operation rather than being helpful.

Rosemary

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I looked it up it stands for Areas of Significant Risk of Flooding

https://www.miteco.gob.es/en/cartogr...gua/arpsi.html

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Sorry just realised 1sexsmith already answered

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Oh no no.... terrible violence has erupted
. They are throwing stones at the king and politics calling them murderers. Police intervening. Looks like the King is trapped in the scrum. Watch the live TV

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It is in Paiporta. Never seen anything like it. Not enough police. . Sanchez is there and the queen. Looks like sticks are hitting them. This looks terrible.

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The crowd are now out of control...no security. It looks like Sanchez and the Queen are there but they can't get them out as only some local police.

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A couple of the young men threw water bottle, clearly see who they are because the television cameramen caught them on camera.

Rosemary

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It is evident that people are really desperate. They have clearly reached beyond boiling point and this has exploded into a kind of animal fury.

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A couple of young men threw a water bottle??? Are you watching TV?

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Yes, this is on La1 and Antena 3. which channel are you receiving.

Rosemary

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La sexta. They are showing a crowd shouting asesinós y hija de puta.
Now security have arrived and they appear to be surrounding the cars with horses as they try to get everyone out

​​​​

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Thanks. I only switched on when I saw your posts. Do not normally have TV on.

Rosemary

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I am not sure what has happened with queen but it appears she was hit in the face with what looks like a muddy stone and the are huddled around her. She is holding her face. But can't see neither can reporter

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showing on

https://www.rtve.es/play/videos/dire...-lineales/24h/

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Sanchez seems to get hit on the back by a large stick and then gets rushed to a car. The King , bravely, seems to ignore pleas to leave and keeps talking to people to calm them. The PP president of Valencia looks totally shocked and appears to be holding onto the back of the king!!.

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I noticed that several times when the people around the king put their umbrellas up to protect him from the mud that was being thrown it was very clear that he told them to put them down. He was very good with the younger people who were arguing with him. He listened, spoke and listened again. I am not a royalist at all but was pleased to see the way that he was dealing with the situation. I did not see the politicians interacting at all but I may have missed that as I have not seen much.

Rosemary