Bureaucracy and delays anger those still searching for the missing in Spain

Madrid: Some families in Spain are planning funerals, days after their relatives’ bodies were found in the aftermath of floods that killed at least 217 people. Others are still waiting for news, caught between grief and the hope that a missing relative could still be alive somewhere in the muck.

A full week after the catastrophic rains, the civil guard and national police said in a provisional tally that 89 people were unaccounted for, the first official count of missing people. The number could rise.

Tania hugs her brother-in-law Baruc after rescuing some of their belongings from their flooded house after the floods in Paiporta, Valencia, Spain, on Tuesday.Credit: AP

The central government also approved a major relief package of €10.6 billion ($17.4 billion).The relief package includes payments of up to about €60,000 to people whose homes were damaged and additional aid for people with serious injuries.

“There are still missing people to be found, and more companies, businesses and families affected,” Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said. “That is why we must continue working.”

Many families, though, are not waiting for the government as they search for missing relatives.

Social media pages have lit up with pictures of the disappeared. One crowdsourced map of the area around Valencia, the hardest-hit area in the east, lists their last-known locations. Another collects real-time information about the things residents need most urgently.

“We had to act quickly because people were without basic resources,” said Jorge Saiz, 32, who built the aid map with his wife, Sandra Navarro, 31.

Volunteers and residents clean the mud from the streets in an area affected by floods in Paiporta, Valencia.Credit: AP

Last week, a social media account began sharing photos and information about missing people. The page is called “DANA Desaparecidos,” which roughly translates to “Missing from the storm”.

In one of about 100 posts, a man with a round face smiles, his eyes crinkling above stubbly cheeks.

His name is Luciano Bravo Morales.

Bravo, 58, was walking in Catarroja, a town near the city of Valencia, when the floodwaters began to rise the night of October 29, said Alexia Romero, his niece, in a phone call.

He called his family and climbed on top of a car, she said. Then, he grabbed the awning of a bar. “The last thing he said was, ‘The water is rising too much, the water is going to take me away,’” said Romero, 32.

Her family called a hotline set up by the local government and filed an official missing person’s report. They also shared his photograph on social media.

The difference in the responses shocked them, she said. No officials have called, she said, but the people running the social media pages have reached out to ask if they need help.

“I know that the streets need to be cleaned but – with all due respect – I think they should prioritise searching for missing persons,” she said. “The life of a person is more important than cleaning the lower parts of a house.”

A man cleans the mud outside his house in Paiporta, a week after the floods.Credit: AP

After days of waiting for news, her family just wants to know what happened to Bravo.

“I don’t know how much more time we have left,” she said. “It’s been a week, we’re expecting the worst, but the sooner we can find out, the better.”

For days, authorities have tried to get an accurate count of the missing people, as frustration mounted and unsubstantiated reports circulated. Several people may have called to report the same person, Spanish Transport Minister Oscar Puente said in a radio interview on Monday. That could have led to an overcount.

There could have also been an undercount. People can only file an official report in person, which some may not yet have been able to do. Many police stations have also been damaged or destroyed.

“The government cannot declare a person missing through a phone call,” Nieves Goicoechea, communications director for the Spanish Interior Ministry, said in a phone interview. “There is transparency, but our transparency must be responsible.”

As the government tried to get organised, desperate families grew angrier.

Samuel Ruiz, 28, is still looking for his father, Francisco Ruiz Martinez. He said that Ruiz Martinez, 64, had been driving his nephews near Montserrat, another town near Valencia, when the car got caught in the floods.

Ruiz Martinez broke the window to get the boys – who are 5 and 10 – safely to its roof. But when he tried to climb up himself, his son said, he slipped.

“The water took him away,” Ruiz said in a phone interview. “He disappeared.”

The family also called the hotline and reported his disappearance. They filed an in-person report and gave a DNA sample. They also have not yet received any official information. “The response of the authorities has been lamentable,” Ruiz said.

But people on social media, he added, have been reposting his father’s picture, trying to spread the word. “The most efficient response came from the volunteers and all the neighbours in the area,” he said.

As families worry and pray, some are repeating a phrase that has become something of a motto: “Solo el pueblo salva al pueblo,” or “Only the people save the people.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.