MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
Let's head overseas now to Spain, where rescue and recovery teams are still working to access locations where they may find more bodies drowned by flash flooding earlier this week. At least 200 people have died around the city of Valencia from what has become Spain's worst natural disaster in recent memory. NPR's Miguel Macias joins us from Seville. Hey, Miguel.
MIGUEL MACIAS, BYLINE: Hi, Mary Louise.
KELLY: Hey. What is the latest there?
MACIAS: We're still watching closely that terrible death count rise because, as of today, there were areas like the town of Alfafar, right outside of Valencia, where help had not been received yet. There are still houses and cars left to examine. Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez reassured citizens yesterday that the government was there for them. Let's hear what he said.
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PRIME MINISTER PEDRO SANCHEZ: (Speaking Spanish).
MACIAS: Sanchez said that the government will not let citizens of Valencia down. It will deploy all resources available. Today, in fact, the army sent 500 more members from its emergency response unit, and police units are being deployed from other cities to help with public safety. Today was a national holiday in Spain, and we got to see some images of hope, finally. People in Valencia picked up water, food and other things that might help and simply walked to the most impacted areas in the outskirts of the city to help.
KELLY: And do we know what the impact has been - I mean, how extensive this damage might prove to be?
MACIAS: I think we don't know yet how much damage there is. There are entire towns where homes have been destroyed, infrastructure as big as bridges have been swept away by rivers of brown water. Think about it almost as a tsunami. This wasn't just water accumulating on the streets. You can see videos where - a wave of brown water advancing on the streets until they turned into violent rivers. Communications have been drastically disrupted, with nearly 50 miles of railway completely destroyed. Long lines of trucks have been stuck on blocked highways, their products sometimes going bad. And, of course, there's the emotional toll. People are devastated, sometimes angry, at what they see as a lack of a swift response.
KELLY: Ah. I mean, it must just be exhausting for people there. Given how severe it sounds like this storm was, Miguel, are people talking about whether anything could have been done to avoid that awful death toll - the human tragedy here?
MACIAS: Yes, there's actually quite a bit of controversy around the way citizens were alerted on Tuesday. The official agency that oversees weather events - it's called AEMET - started to warn citizens as far back as Thursday, the 24. That's five days before the storm. AEMET also issued warnings, including a red-level alert for the area, on Tuesday early morning, around 7 a.m. But the direct alert - the beeping cellphone, loud alert from the regional government of Valencia - went out just past 8 p.m. that night. There is testimony showing that, by that time, the flooding was up to 2 meters in some areas. This was also rush hour in Spain, so many cars on the road going back home. In other words, the destruction was going to happen regardless, but the tremendous human toll might have been avoided.
KELLY: That's NPR's Miguel Macias in Seville, Spain. Thanks, Miguel.
MACIAS: Thank you.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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