Spain announces 10.6 billion euro aid package for flood affected areas

Package includes 838 million euros in cash handouts to small businesses and freelance workers affected by the disaster.

Spain has announced a 10.6 billion euro ($11.5bn) aid package to help those affected by flash floods that killed at least 217 people and destroyed businesses and homes last week.

The package includes 838 million euros in cash handouts to small businesses and freelance workers affected by the disaster, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Tuesday.

He said the package also includes 5 billion euros ($5.5bn) of state-guaranteed loans, while the national government will finance 100 percent of the cleanup costs by local councils and half the repair to infrastructure.

He added that Spain has also requested aid from the European Union solidarity fund.

​​”There are still missing persons to be located, homes and businesses destroyed, buried under the mud and many people suffering severe shortages,” Sanchez said in a news conference in Madrid.

“We have to keep working.”

At least 217 people died in Valencia, Castile La Mancha and Andalusia, but only 111 have been identified so far.

Reporting from Chiva, a town in Valencia, Al Jazeera’s Sonia Gallego said as rescue efforts continue “hundreds” of people are still missing with authorities warning that the death toll could increase.

The regional judicial authorities in Valencia said on Tuesday that at least 89 people were missing.

The number only includes reports from families who have provided data and biological samples for the identification of their relatives, the Superior Court of Justice of the Region of Valencia said in a statement.

Last week, heavy rainfall was caused by a weather system where cold and warm air meet and produce intense rain clouds, which are believed to be growing more frequently due to climate change.

The floods were the deadliest in modern Spanish history and the most catastrophic flood-related event in Europe since 1967.

In the face of criticism and anger at the slow response to the disaster, Sanchez said the government had deployed nearly 15,000 police and military to help clear flood-affected areas, along with hundreds of forestry officials, forensic scientists, customs agents and heavy machinery to clear roads and rubble.

People help to clean, following heavy rains that caused floods, in Paiporta, near Valencia, Spain, November 4, 2024 [Eva Manez/Reuters]

Anger reached boiling point on Sunday when crowds in Paiporta, a suburb in Valencia which experienced heavy flooding, threw mud at King Felipe VI, Queen Letizia, and Sanchez as they chanted, “Murderers, Murderers!”.

Matilde Gregori, 57, from Sedavi, a town in Valencia affected by the flooding, also criticised the government’s response.

“Only the people are helping … And the politicians, where are they? Why didn’t they raise the alarm? Murderers!” Gregori told the news agency AFP.

“They don’t know how to take care of their people, let them go home … We know how to do better,” she said, whose shop was affected by the floods.

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Al Jazeera and news agencies