About 80 people are still missing and people are angry at the government after the deadliest deluge in decades
\n Spain
\nThousands of people have demonstrated in Spain\u2019s eastern city of Valencia to protest the authorities\u2019 handling of one of Europe\u2019s deadliest natural disasters in decades and call for accountability.
\nLarge crowds gathered in the central part of the city on Saturday night, with some clashing with riot police in front of Valencia\u2019s city hall. Police were filmed using batons to beat back protesters who were marching towards the seat of the regional government.
\nIn Spain, regional governments are charged with handling civilian protection and can ask for extra resources from the national government in Madrid.
\nThe current regional leader is Carlos Mazon of the conservative Popular Party, who is facing calls for resignation after his administration failed to issue flood alerts to citizens until after the water was filling people\u2019s homes.
\nMazon has defended his handling of the crisis, arguing that the magnitude of the crisis was unforeseeable and that authorities in Madrid failed to notify his administration adequately and on time.
\nBut Spain\u2019s weather agency issued a red alert, the highest level of warning, for bad weather at approximately 7:30am local time (06:30GMT) on Tuesday morning, more than 12 hours earlier than Mazon\u2019s administration finally sent out alerts to people\u2019s cellphones.
\nThe regional leader is also facing heavy criticism due to what people viewed as a slow and unorganised response to the natural disaster, which has killed at least 220 people as of Saturday.
\nIn many of the hardest-hit areas on Valencia\u2019s southern outskirts, volunteers were the first to help people, with the government taking days to fully mobilise the thousands of police forces and soldiers who were sent to assist the flood-stricken.
\n\u201cYou killed us!\u201d some of the protesters wrote on their protest banners on Saturday, with others chanting for Mazon\u2019s resignation and some leaving muddied boots outside the council building to show their fury.
\n\u201cWe want to show our indignation and anger over the poor management of this disaster which has affected so many people,\u201d said Anna Oliver, president of Accio Cultural del Pais Valenciano, one of about 30 groups that organised the protest, according to the Reuters news agency.
\nThere were also protests in Valencia earlier this week, and people threw mud and chanted \u201cmurderers\u201d when King Felipe and Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez visited a suburb of the city.
\nAt least 212 of the deaths were recorded in the eastern Valencia region, and nearly 80 people are still believed to be missing in the deadliest deluge in a European country since floods in Portugal in 1967 killed about 500.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
About 80 people are still missing and people are angry at the government after the deadliest deluge in decades Spain Thousands of people have demonstrated in Spain\u2019s eastern city of Valencia to protest the authorities\u2019 handling of one of Europe\u2019s deadliest natural disasters in decades and call for accountability. Large crowds gathered in the central […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":442791,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-442766","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n