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Five-year-old among three still missing in deadly Majorca floods
SANT LLORENC DES CARDASSAR, Spain, Oct 11, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Rescue workers
searched desperately Thursday for a five-year-old boy and two Germans still
missing on Spain’s holiday island of Majorca after flash floods tore through
streets and swept away cars, killing 10 people.
A massive clean-up was under way in the mud-covered streets of Sant Llorenc
des Cardassar, one of the worst-hit towns, after intense, driving rain on
Tuesday afternoon surprised locals who only had a precious few seconds to
react before a torrent descended.
Mangled vehicles, wet mattresses, wrecked furniture and trees torn right
out from their roots cluttered the town, 60 kilometres (40 miles) east of the
island’s capital of Palma, while locals tried to recover lost valuables from
the wreckage of their homes with the help of volunteers.
Emergency services in the Balearic archipelago tweeted that six men and
four women were killed. A British couple and a Dutch woman were among the
dead.
About 150 emergency services workers searched overnight for the missing
five-year-old boy.
The child was in a car in Sant Llorenc with his mother, who was one of
those killed, a spokesman for the central government’s representative in the
Balearic Islands said. The boy’s sister survived.
A helicopter and heat-sensing drone joined the search once daylight broke,
TVE reported.
Two Germans were also reported missing, emergency officials said.
Muddy waters rushed down roads, houses were flooded and vehicles piled up
on top of each other after the Mediterranean island was pounded with rain in
just a few hours, video footage showed.
One of the male victims could not yet be identified but is also believed to
be a foreigner.
– Nadal helps out –
Pedro Sanchez, a Sant Llorenc resident, said he jumped into his car when he
saw the murky flood water rise.
“But I saw that the water was taking me away,” the 40-year-old told AFP.
“It rose two metres (six feet) in 30 seconds, and luckily the water pressed
me against a wall,” he said, standing in a road blocked by a jumble of bed
frames and debris.
“I got out through the car window and got to safety on the roof of a
neighbour’s house.”
He said he was lucky to survive, and his car wasn’t too damaged.
Many people have been sleeping in sports centres since the flash floods.
As emergency vehicles came and went, residents used brooms to chase out
water from their homes, or tried to get rid of the thick mud with hoses.
Spanish tennis star Rafael Nadal, who is from the affected area in
Majorca, was among the volunteers helping with the cleanup operation.
Pictures and videos posted on Spanish media showed the 32-year-old, wearing
boots and white gloves, mopping up the floor of a warehouse on Wednesday.
He helped out for “several hours”, said Sanchez.
– Financial aid –
Nadal also announced on Instagram he was offering to open up his sports
centre and tennis academy to people made homeless by the floods.
“Our most sincere condolences to the loved ones of the victims of the
serious floods in San Llorenc,” he wrote.
Emergency services sent out tweets in Spanish, Catalan, English and German
in a reflection of the prevalence of tourists and foreign residents on the
island.
Last year, 13.8 million foreign tourists visited the Balearic Islands,
according to official statistics. The biggest numbers came from Germany and
Britain.
Many more foreigners live in the archipelago.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez visited the disaster zone and
described the situation as “absolutely extraordinary”.
His government is expected to approve later on Thursday financial help for
affected zones.
The regional government of the Balearic Islands declared three days of
mourning.
Meanwhile in neighbouring France one person is missing near Sainte-Maxime
after his car was washed into the sea by floods as violent storms hit the
French Riviera, local officials said.
BSS/AFP/FI/ 1435 hrs