Spain Orders Largest Peacetime Troop Deployment After Flooding
- New deployments of military, police to arrive this weekend
- Governments slammed for slow response to weather emergency
Flooding in a cemetery in the town of Alfafar, Valencia region.
Photographer: Jose Jordan/AFP/Getty Images
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Spain’s government ordered its biggest peace-time deployment of military and security forces to the flood-hit region of Valencia as the country grapples with the largest natural disaster in decades.
The new deployments will arrive over the weekend and are to include 5,000 soldiers and 5,000 members of the police and Civil Guards, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said in a speech on Saturday. That will take the total number of troops and police in the affected areas to about 17,000.