Spanish govt sends further 5,000 troops to floods-hit areas

Madrid, Nov 3 (IANS) Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has said that an additional 5,000 soldiers and 5,000 police and Civil Guards would be deployed to southern and eastern Spain, where recent floods have caused severe damage.

The flooding, triggered by torrential rains from an Isolated Depression at High Levels (DANA) on Tuesday night and early Wednesday, has heavily impacted these regions, Xinhua news agency reported.

In a press conference held on Saturday at his official residence in the Palacio de La Moncloa, Sanchez said it was "the largest deployment of the Armed Forces that has been made in Spain in peacetime," adding although the 2,000 troops already in the area have carried out 4,500 rescues and helped more than 30,000 people, "these numbers are insufficient," because there are "still many places to reach".

One of the rescues Sanchez referred to saw a woman pulled alive from a car that had been swept away during the initial floods, after surviving the last three days trapped in her vehicle.

All but three of the deaths caused by the flooding have happened in the region of Valencia, and Sanchez said the "actions of his government" were to help "town councils and autonomous communities to manage the tragedy".

He added that the entire country was "supporting" the people affected in the Valencia region.

"We will get through this together," he insisted, adding that the floods were the "biggest natural disaster in the recent history of our country and is the flood that has caused the second highest death toll in Europe this century".

The soldiers, police, and Civil Guards will be accompanied by the naval vessel "Galicia," which will depart immediately from the port of Rota in the south-west of Spain.

The Spanish Prime Minister added that this government would hold an emergency cabinet meeting on Tuesday to approve the status of "seriously affected area for the places in the Valencian Community, Castilla-La Mancha, Andalusia, Aragon, and Catalonia that have been hit the hardest by the floods".

He also said an inter-ministerial commission would be created to "promote the reconstruction and economic relaunch of these areas".

Sanchez also said his government was "in communication with the European Commission and the procedures of the European Solidarity Fund and other community support resources," and he gave his thanks for "the immense number of messages of solidarity from all the authorities outside Spain".

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