Copyright majorcadailybulletin
On Tuesday October 29, 2024, 229 people lost their lives in Valencia, seven in Castile-La Mancha and one more in Andalusia, although the ripple effect of the deaths and other collateral damage from the tragedy pushed the numbers into the thousands. The consequences remain, despite a year's effort of reconstruction. The deadly storm first hit the eastern coast of Mallorca. As Manacor was recovering from its impact, it intensified on the mainland. By eleven o'clock on that Tuesday morning, ports had already been closed, traffic was stopped, classes were cancelled, and a red alert was activated in Valencia. The spokesperson for Aemet, Rubén Del Campo, repeatedly stressed that "precautions should be taken" due to the danger the storm posed. Andalusia, Castile-La Mancha and Murcia also began to feel the effects of the rain. In the morning of October 29, the president of Valencia, Carlos Mazón, emphasised the work and "maximum coordination" of the emergency services, highlighting the fact that the storm had not caused personal injuries or a major flood alert, although he urged the population to act cautiously and to "avoid unnecessary travel". He even spoke of an expected "decrease" in the storm's intensity. It wasn't until several hours later, during which he was incommunicado, that Mazón realised the true extent of the catastrophe. There was to be a massive demonstration in Valencia that called for his resignation, the courts continuing to determine responsibilities and analysing whether negligence was committed during the management of the emergency. The ES-Alert phone warning was sent at 8.11pm, by when one-third of the victims would have been dead. Almost 1.4 billion euros have been spent on around 300 initiatives for economic and social recovery. This will reach two billion by the end of the year. The Spanish Government's commissioner for reconstruction, Zulima Pérez, says much still needs to be done, the total aid having been some eight billion. But the figures cannot disguise the tragedy and nor can they remove suspicions that if actions had been different on that day, people may have survived. It would still have been a natural disaster on a colossal level, but Valencia was also a personal disaster.
