I just looked and it looks like we are staying in an apartment building - not a shopping center..

Just to debunk the myths, the Civil Protection alerts were coming thick and fast from Tuesday evening, I received the first one at 20:12. All phones were receiving them, even the foreign phones. On top of that, local weather warnings were coming from Tuesday morning. I was sent home from work at midday as a precaution.
I'm sure the authorities could have done more but I really think they're doing a good job so far. I haven't seen the worst of it as I don't want to get in the way but I was at the airport just after midnight on Tuesday night/ Wednesday morning and the warnings were coming through to everyone in the airport. I was also there on Saturday morning and saw the state of the roads. There were dozens of vehicles abondoned on the A3 and AP7 as well as tonnes and tonnes of pallets and other debris strewn around.
There are only so many recovery trucks available and scrapyards to take the vehicles. Getting there is also a huge problem. Many bridges are damaged or destroyed. My nearest bridge over the Turia is down. I walked the dogs down there over the weekend and the debris is 4-5 meters high in the trees. It's mostly bamboo, it appears to have created dams before giving way and causing extra surges.
As for the helicopters, they have been coming out of Betera non stop.
My only criticism would be allowing the bamboo to thrive around the Turia. In the summer it's a fire hazard and during storms it snaps and creates the dams.

At 7:22 on Tuesday night we had water covering the street and sidewalk. In 5 minutes it was in the entrance way. Another 10 minutes and it was up the 3 steps and in our apartment.
It is not bamboo but from what I have been told by our local police in our village near Gandia is that you cannot cut it as I wanted some for our plants. The cities can cut it if it restricts waterways..
Look at the time it was taken.. Too LATE for your 8:12 notice. you would have been drowned or at the minimum washed into the sea..

Wow, I didn't even know it reached Gandia. Hope you're safe down there. Were they sending alerts there? Obviously no use if they're too late but trying to understand the system

We have a house near Gandia and an apartment in Alfafar. We are in Alfafar..

Even if it does bring a tax break with it, this is a very generous gesture and I hope more of Spain's very wealthy citizens will follow his example. La Liga footballers, for example?

Amancio Ortega crea un fondo de 100 millones de euros para ayudar a los afectados por la DANA

Juan Roig (Mercadona) already donated a million euros. The owner of Deliplus and Bosque Verde who is a friend of his is amongst the missing.

Real Madrid, CD Castellón, and Abanca donated a million each, Santander donated €2m and BBVA €4m.

CaixaBank, Santander, BBVA and Banco Sabadell have waived cash withdrawal fees in Valencia province.

Meanwhile... the government reiterated yesteday that Mazón should continue to manage the crisis as Mazón knows the region with central government supplying whatever they ask for. Feijóo today said that the PP would support the government declaring a national emergency (and take it off of Mazón's hands). Mazón today tried to shift the blame to national bodies and central government reminded him that he was wrong. No politician wants to touch this.

Good to hear. I have just read that Hacienda has announced that they will "postpone" taking the second payments of IRPF for 2023, due this month, from the bank accounts of people in Valencia. That seems mean, you would think the least they could do would be to write it off altogether.

If a national state of emergency were declared, would it, for example, allow the Government to requisition empty properties to provide temporary housing for those who cannot return to their homes?

Yes, Lynn, I agree with La Liga players.

I was going to add Mercadona, but he beat me to it. What about oil/energy companies? They would not miss a few million, especially given the pump prices at the moment.

They can't requisition private housing but they can requisition other types of property... Link

Of course the tragedy continues but eyes today are turning to the US elections. I understand that news wants to report this whilst at the same time not to remove focus from the events of the last week however I realize that this is good in the sense that people should realize how dangerous Trump and the right are in their denial of climate change and perversely promoting the use of fossil fuels. These people are uncaring selfish provocateurs motivated by sense of revenge and all that that entails
I was listening to Laurence Fox yesterday and wondered why people try and ban him speaking. In reality if you actually listen to him you realize how totally uninformed and stupid he his. He simply is not intelligent enough to be able to structure any convincing arguments for his beliefs and therefore anyone who probably supports him is equally limited in their understanding of the most basic rules of logic. In short they talk ( and talk) nonsense. So don't prevent people hearing them because then people will realise how pathetic these folk are and how much harm they can cause. Tommy Robinson is the same. Go listen to him. He just talks utter nonsense and brazenly lies. ( Listen to him talk about his mortgage fraud conviction then fact check it ). Anyway my point is - the tragedy of the last week should serve to tell people that the fact that scientists have warned ( not so much of change) but the increased frequency of climate events and that along with the data statistically indicates that such predictions now appear more accurate than deniers thought. So please don't get drawn into the debate that suggests that Sanchez and co should be replaced by another government which leans to the right because it is within those ranks that the dangerous people hide.
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The first explorations by firefighters in the MN4 car park, Alfafar, no victims were found. According to the director of Grupo Martí, Javier Martí, "in principle, it's all good news." It still needs to be checked if there are people trapped in vehicles.

Rosemary

The five minutes silence was respected by my town.

On FB I saw a thread about applauding the volunteers and other services at 8 pm tonight in the same way that we did during the Covid lockdown. On that thread many asked what was the point, what good it would do and that it was a stupid idea. All responders were Spanish. Whilst in one way I can agree with those sentiments I also think that it is one of the things that helped peoples moral during lockdown. For those who cannot physically help it might make them feel closer to those doing the work. As far as I know this was simply an idea put forward by one Valencian group on FB so not sure whether anyone will take part.

Rosemary

Firefighters came today and ripped out the kitchen and built in wardrobes. We cleaned the rest of the mud out.
All that is left is the poor plants and to remove the parquet from 2 rooms...
day by day..
Now to go and find a beer and a hot meal - our city gas does not flow yet...

I must have missed a reason here but why would firefighters do that for you?