Residents of flood-ravaged Alfafar attacked the Spanish government

A resident of the village covered in mud from head to toe Alfafar on Friday tried to clean a huge puddle of sludge from the front door using only a wooden broom board.

At times the Sisyphean task seemed to overwhelm him, and he stood up to survey the upturned surroundings. deadly flash floods in Europe for 50 years.

Cars were piled on top of each other. Broken windows and fragments of doors lay on the ground. And everywhere, covering everything, was a a thick brown layer of silt.

on friday helpless residents of this destroyed suburb of Valencia turned their anger on the lack of help from the government and army. With road access limited by the destruction, they were cut off from most of the rescue efforts that were unfolding all along the east coast.

“They did absolutely nothing. For the first 48 hours we only saw the police helicopters overhead,” said 42-year-old Laura Prieto.

By Friday morning, military trucks had arrived to clear the water, cars and corpses from the underground parking lots. But many areas of the city remained inaccessible to rescuers, including the neighboring district of Albal.