Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced on Saturday the largest peacetime deployment of troops in response to catastrophic floods that have claimed 211 lives across eastern, southern, and central Spain.
Sánchez revealed in a televised that an additional 5,000 soldiers will join the 2,500 already mobilized for rescue efforts and cleanup operations.
“Dozens of people are still searching for loved ones, and hundreds of families are grieving the loss of a relative, friend, or neighbor,” he said. Sánchez pledged that the government would utilize all available resources to address the “terrible tragedy,” particularly affecting the eastern region of Valencia.
His remarks coincided with thousands of volunteers gathering at Valencia’s City of Arts and Sciences, the central hub for the cleanup effort.
The floods are the deadliest in Europe’s history since 1967, when more than 500 people died in Portugal.
Meteorologists reported that Valencia experienced a year’s worth of rain in just eight hours on Tuesday, causing road blockages, uprooted trees, and severe building damage.