Laurence Dollimore
SOME victims of the deadly Valencia floods may have been carried out to sea, rescuers have warned.
Firefighter Oscar Gonzalo, from the Zaragoza Aquatic Rescue Group, was called up to help the search efforts on Thursday.
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He told 20Minutos that the main priority is rescuing people who were still trapped in their cars or homes or in other parts of province.
He said: “Our job is to go to areas that are still flooded with the priority of finding missing people, people who are trapped in vehicles, in houses with no possibility of communicating with the outside or in areas that are difficult to access.”
However they are also in charge of recovering the bodies of drowned people.
He added: “Until a doctor certifies their death, we treat them as if they were living people and we put all our effort into getting them back on their feet.”
Oscar said there may be multiple victims who have been dragged out to sea by the floods.
The prospect raises fears that some bodies may never be recovered if they have been carried far out into the Mediterranean.
“All the water that has been dragged by the ravines and rivers has ended up there,” he explained, adding that recovering people from the sea was ‘usually a job for the Maritime Rescue service.’
Sources from the Valencia fire department said: “Right now we are focused on rescuing people, because there are still people with problems, and on searching for missing people
“Another priority is to restore basic supplies for the population, especially the drinking water service where it has been interrupted, but also the electricity supply and telecommunications. R
“Right now we are working with all active personnel and we even have reinforcement personnel.”
