Still orange alert in Andalusia and the Balearics. The toll from the flood rises to 207 dead and 1900 missing

“It is reasonable to think that we will have more deaths” also because “1,900 missing” are missing. The Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, said this regarding the number of victims caused by dana, during the Hora 25 program of Cadena SER. “The update is that there are 207 accredited victims. It is impossible to know the number of missing people and it would be unwise for me to provide a figure,” he added.

“The data of 1,900 missing people – explained the Interior Minister – are the calls that 112 receives saying that they cannot find their relatives, but this is mostly due to communication defects. Furthermore, the people who they finally find their relatives, they don’t report it, so we cannot make predictions of this type. Evaluations in this sense would lead us into error and would not generate trust.”

“It is reasonable to think that there will be more deaths – explained Grande-Marlaska – I don’t like talking about probable numbers. There are very few areas where some competent authority has not arrived to carry out rescue operations”. Regarding the speed of the deployment of the armed forces, Grande-Marlaska argued that the army was deployed from day one and was at the disposal of the autonomous community, which is “the one that has the powers”. “We have offered all the available resources that the Autonomous Community requires. This is our function”, he added.