Gavin Grey: UK correspondent on the ongoing rescue efforts following flash flooding in Spain

Over in Spain, efforts have begun to search an underground carpark in Valencia - where authorities fear may more be dead after last week's flash flooding.

The deadliest flash flood in modern Spanish history has killed over 217 people so far, with dozens more still unaccounted for.

UK correspondent Gavin Grey says angry crowds have confronted King Felipe VI and thrown mud in protest of the 'woeful' response to the disaster. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Gavin Gray UK corresponding with us. Now, hey, Kevin, hi there, Gavin.
This business of throwing mad at the king in Spain
and shouting at him and stuff like that, and people
in desparately not being helped, It's like it's like medieval,
isn't it.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
Yeah, it is, but there is huge anger around that
Spain area, the region of Valencia, and that anger just
boiled over. And yeah, certainly the security detail around the
king and queen were very, very stretched. But with the
death stoll standing at two hundred and seventeen, we are
now waiting an update, and that is because they are
going to now begin to search the underground car park

(00:37):
of the bonn Air shopping center just outside of the
main city of Valencia. There is a ramp leading down
and it was absolutely full of water and is now
being pumped out. And of course the big fear is
that with some seventeen hundred car parking spaces there, they
are going to find well potentially dozens of bodies, but

(00:59):
they don't know yet, They don't know how many got out.
They do know it was chaotic, but the authorities and
the emergency responders are steal for what could be a
really horrendous experience down there, police talking about finding maybe eighty,
but they're obviously hoping it could be many fewer.

Speaker 1 (01:16):
That's pretty good, am I listen, Becking, you're part of
the world. You guys have got a new value for
money chief. Is this the right guy? Though?

Speaker 2 (01:23):
Aha? That's a very very good question, and indeed how
the people have been asking that over the weekend. So
the governments set up what it thought was a great
idea and it sounds good, a money for value for
money chief. Indeed, they've even got a new department, a
new office for value for money, and that new chief
is called David Goldstone. So of course people immediately thought, well,

(01:44):
who's he to, you know, manage to get big value
for money. Well, he worked as a top executive on
the London Olympics, Parliament's restoration, and the high speed Too
rail link. What do all those three have in common? Yes,
they all went well over budgets. So Street is now
having to defend the appointment, saying he's a highly experienced
public sector leader with a track record of working on complex,

(02:07):
high value programs, and then pushed about whether he was
value for money, they said, yes, yes, of course he
is but you know what, you know, I'm afraid those
three projects. Some people say, of course they were over money,
over budget, they all do these big projects, but it's
the amount of money some of these projects have gone under,
with the HS two line just every few you know months,

(02:29):
going an increase in its budget, and the Nandon Olympics
costing three times as much as expected.

Speaker 1 (02:36):
Hey, what's the problem with the badgers. What's going on?

Speaker 2 (02:40):
Well, badger's here a bit like sort of wombats from Australia,
of course, and they are a protected species here in
the UK, so you can't just if you find them
go and remove them. Now. The problem is they are
extremely destructive animals in that they build these sets which
are very deep and very big and have extra dreamely

(03:00):
large holes and tunnels within them, and they've been digging
in the East of England under a road which has
effectively meant it's had to be relayed. Now. The council
wanted to do this urgently with urgent repairs because it
would be cheaper to do it with urgent repairs. But
guess what, they had to get the permission of Natural
England for a license before the work could be carried

(03:21):
out because the badgers are a protected species. The delay
has pushed up the bill and they're saying the Celical
Council has said it's costing roughly two hundred and forty
thousand New Zealand dollars more than it would have done
if they could have got that way with the work.

Speaker 1 (03:36):
Quicker Knowingkevin, thanks very much, appreciate it. Gavin Gray, UK correspondent.

Speaker 2 (03:41):
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