The Spanish Ministry of Transport released €24.8 million on Friday, November 1, to cover the first emergency repairs to roads and rail infrastructure damaged by the severe flooding that struck the Valencia region on Tuesday night. But this will just be the beginning. The priority is to rebuild the section of the A-7 freeway viaduct destroyed by the floods. The viaduct, which forms part of the Valence ring road, usually handles 78,000 vehicles a day. While waiting for it to reopen, a temporary three-lane detour will be set up.
Repair work has already started on the Chiva and Torrent rail tunnels, which were severely damaged by the floods, with 1.2 kilometers of track destroyed. But, the restoration of the AVE high-speed rail link between Madrid and the city of Valencia will be impossible for “at least two to three weeks,” according to Transport Minister Oscar Puente. No timeline has been provided for the restoration of the three commuter train lines that have been cut; one of these lines has been completely destroyed over a 90-kilometer stretch.
While the focus remains on the search for dozens of missing persons, and residents are being advised to limit travel as much as possible, it is currently impossible to estimate the staggering cost of repairing the damage caused by the cold front that devastated Valencia province and affected neighboring regions. Nor is it possible to calculate the economic impact of the shutdown of many businesses and industries in Valencia, Spain’s third-largest city.
Ford plant halts operations
“We won’t leave you on your own,” promised Spain’s left-wing Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez to the people of Valencia on October 30. “We will help you with all the resources of the State and, if necessary, those of the European Union (EU), so that you can get back on your feet, rebuild your homes and your lives as quickly as possible. To the towns and villages, we say the same thing. We will rebuild your streets, your squares, your bridges.” On the same day, the president of the Valencian government, Carlos Mazon, of the right-wing People’s Party, announced €250 million in aid for disaster victims, with “a minimum of €6,000 in direct, rapid and un-bureaucratic aid” per person. He also called on the EU to activate its solidarity funds.
Three days after the floods, dozens of roads remain closed. These include stretches of the A-3 and A-7 freeways and several national roads whose footpaths have been torn up by the force of the water or sunken by landslides, as well as bridges and almost a hundred secondary roads. Industrial zones such as Riba-Roja, home to 1,200 companies, and the Pista de Silla logistics hub, at the heart of the disaster, were flooded. To the south of Valencia, the Ford plant in Almussafes, a symbol of the region’s industrial activity, where almost 400 workers had to spend the night of October 29 to seek shelter from the floods, has decided to suspend its activities until at least November 11. Miguel Burdeos, president of the SPB Group – whose Bosque Verde and Deliplus brands are well known in Spain thanks to the Mercadona supermarkets – is said to be among those “missing.”
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