• DANA The Army installs in Aldea del Fresno the bridge that "helped win" World War II
  • DANA Who pressed the red button on the mass alarm? The most tense hours of Madrid's 112: "It was a historic situation"

Helicopters, drones, dogs trained to follow human trails, large excavators and hundreds of agents of the Civil Guard and emergency services are used thoroughly to search for the three missing after the passage of the DANA (two men in Madrid and a woman in Toledo), which in the early hours of Sunday to Monday was baited with the towns of Villamanta and Aldea del Fresno.

As the hours progress, the hopes of the members of the rescue device diminish. However, they do not relent in their efforts, nor are they spared in the use of human and material resources to find their whereabouts.

Even the most optimistic official sources acknowledge that "hopes are diminishing as the hours go by." The most pessimistic handle as a main hypothesis that the lifeless bodies of these victims can be found "under tons of mud and debris" in the riverbed or in its vicinity.

The disappearance in which more resources are being allocated is that of a man close to fifty and native of Alcorcón. His car, in which he was traveling with his family, was swept away by a torrent because of the intense rains and at that moment the man's track was lost. In the batida participate more than a hundred agents of the Civil Guard who through the three elements comb the course of the river and its surroundings. A task for which helicopters and drones are being used for aerial reconnaissance, veteran canine units specialized in the search for missing persons, and even a heavy backhoe with which, after days buried, the emergency services finally managed to extract the car in which he was traveling from the ground.

At the same time, in Villamanta, the attention of the rescue teams is focused on locating an octogenarian with Alzheimer's disappeared who, according to the investigations, was moving on foot in the vicinity of his home at the time of being surprised by the waters of the avenue. A batida in which dozens of agents of the Benemérita also actively participate.

In this circumstance, as the popular saying goes, the dog is man's best friend. "Of all the tools we have, dogs are the most useful given the circumstances and the passage of time since the tragedy occurred. Searching in a river is very, very complicated," explain sources of the body. "Most likely," they indicate, "the bodies are under the mud and we trust that a dog can locate their trace."

In this sense, the Alberche River and its banks have become the epicenter of the searches, in which the authorities and emergency services have already beaten a length close to 20 kilometers, even going into the neighboring province of Toledo to find the missing in Madrid. "On Sunday night we found a completely flooded land and, now, the riverbed has gone down a lot. It is a terrain full of obstacles. However, the weather forecast points to new rains, "explain sources of the armed body, which carry out the search work supported by heavy machinery to eliminate obstacles such as trunks, branches and rubble.

At the close of this edition, despite the decrease in water levels and the clearer terrain, neither the operators nor the specialized dog unit found the trail of the missing, say sources of Emergency 112 Community of Madrid.

At the same time that the searches are progressing, the reconstruction tasks and the processing of compensation are carried out with about 10,500 flood claims to be managed by the Insurance Compensation Consortium that, according to the first estimates, would amount to an amount of between 60 and 70 million euros destined to compensation.

With regard to infrastructure, in addition to the destruction of the bridges – in whose replacement the Army Corps of Engineers works with the installation of a Bailey bridge – the Military Emergency Unit (UME) is used in the repair of a pipe at the height of Aldea del Fresno that supplies water to about 270,000 people spread over 27 municipalities of Toledo.

Meanwhile, from the Community of Madrid they have offered help to the private residence San Juan Bautista de Aldea del Fresno whose access has been hindered by the impact of DANA. In addition, two educational centers -a school and an institute in Alcalá de Henares- have seen the start of the course postponed. Some educational centers that, according to the president of Madrid, will soon "return to normal. A task in which Isabel Díaz Ayuso assures "to be committed".

  • Civil Guard
  • Toledo
  • Dogs
  • Community of Madrid
  • EMU
  • Isabel Diaz Ayuso
  • Alcalá de Henares
  • Alcorcón
  • Pets