Amid one of its worst starts to a Spanish league and with its Singaporean owner enduring continued criticism by its fans, Valencia has had to turn its focus away from soccer.
The club is centered on helping those affected by the massive flash floods in the area that have killed nearly 100 people in the worst natural disaster to hit Spain this century.
Valencia’s Mestalla Stadium, where the team is scheduled to host defending league champion Real Madrid on Saturday, has become a place to help the victims of the devastating floods.
Valencia's game at Parla Escuela in the first round of the Copa del Rey was moved from Wednesday to Nov. 6, and the match against Madrid was expected to be moved to a new date as well.
“Valencia FC deem this the most appropriate measure due to the terrible consequences of (this) weather phenomenon experienced in the Valencia region, recommendations to avoid travel and the cut-off in communication to Madrid,” the club said after the Copa match was postponed.
Before the team practice on Wednesday, the squad observed a moment of silence at its training center in honor of the victims of the floods. Some of the team's players were absent because of the transportation difficulties caused by the storms.
The club said it joined forces with the Valencia Food Bank, and its stadium became “a deposit for food and basic needs.”
“Mestalla will be at the service of the city to cope with the emergency caused by the (floods)."
The death toll was expected to rise as an unknown number of people were still missing. Search efforts were ongoing and some vehicles with bodies were yet to be reached. The aftermath of the floods from late Tuesday to early Wednesday looked eerily similar to the damage left by a hurricane or tsunami, with cars piled up alongside uprooted trees and downed power lines.
Before the storms, Valencia was preparing to face a tough period of matches that began with Madrid’s visit and then a trip to Espanyol and a game against sixth-placed Real Betis.
Valenica was in last place with only one victory in 11 La Liga matches, and the ire of the majority of its fans with owner Peter Lim reaching new depths.
Fans have long been upset with Lim, accusing him of treating the club solely as a business endeavour and not caring about the sporting results or its supporters. Thousands protested outside the Mestalla this month, many carrying familiar signs of “Lim Go Home.”
Some of the protests got out of hand last week after the team lost at home to Las Palmas, a team that hadn’t won in La Liga in 23 consecutive matches. Fans confronted police and caused damage around the Mestalla.
Valencia’s only league win was in September against Girona. Since then, the team coached by Ruben Baraja has three draws and two losses.
Valencia won its last Liga title in 2004, and finished ninth last season. Its last Copa del Rey title was in 2019.
Madrid's squad — and most Spanish clubs — also observed a moment of silence before training. Carlo Ancelotti's team was preparing for the match against Valencia, looking to rebound from the humbling 4-0 loss at home to Barcelona in last weekend's clasico.
Its next match will be on Tuesday, again at the Bernabeu, against AC Milan in the Champions League.
Liga leader Barcelona hosts city rival Espanyol on Sunday. Hansi Flick's team, which has a six-point lead over second-placed Madrid, has scored 21 goals and conceded two in its last five matches in all competitions.
Espanyol, sitting just outside the relegation zone, is coming off two consecutive losses.
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Members of the local police react to the news of one of their colleagues who died in the floods in Valencia, Spain, Thursday, Oct. 31, 2024. (AP Photo/Alberto Saiz)
Residents clean their houses affected by floods in Valencia, Spain, Thursday, Oct. 31, 2024. (AP Photo/Alberto Saiz)
Vehicles are seen piled up after being swept away by floods on a motorway in Valencia, Spain, Thursday, Oct. 31, 2024. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
Vehicles are seen piled up after being swept away by floods in Valencia, Spain, Thursday, Oct. 31, 2024. (AP Photo/Alberto Saiz)
SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — Survivors of a deadly walkway collapse at a state-run ferry dock on a Georgia island said Thursday that the government should help them pay for funerals for the seven people who died as well as medical bills and mental health counseling for those who lived.
Lawmakers on the Georgia Senate's Urban Affairs Committee heard from four people who were at the dock on Sapelo Island on Oct. 19 when a metal gangway snapped in the middle, sending dozens of people plunging into the water.
Among them was Yvonne Brockington of Jacksonville, Florida, who had arranged for more than 50 members of her club for older adults to visit the island during an annual cultural festival organized by its tiny Gullah-Geechee community of Black slave descendants.
Brockington said she was waiting with others to board an afternoon ferry off the island when she suddenly felt as if she was in a falling elevator. When she stopped suddenly, she felt both of her legs break. While bystanders used a rope to pull Brockington to safety, four members of her club perished.
“The psychological effect, I don't know if it will ever go away, but we definitely need help,” Brockington told lawmakers via video conference from her hospital bed. “It should not have happened. The state of Georgia owes us more than resources. They owe us an apology, and they need to make sure it never happens again.”
Other survivors told the meeting in Atlanta that the traumatic day still haunts them.
Darrel Jenkins, who pulled two people from the water but never learned whether they lived or died, said he continues to have nightmares and asks himself: “What about the people that might not have lived? Could I have done more?”
Regina Brinson said her 79-year-old uncle, Isaiah Thomas, drowned after she had to pry his clutching fingers from her shirt to avoid being dragged underwater herself.
“We need mental health support, financial support, resources to ensure that the survivors and their families have what they need to start recovery,” Brinson said.
The dock on Sapelo Island is operated by the state Department of Natural Resources, which manages the daily ferry service to and from the mainland.
The agency says about 700 people visited Oct. 19 for Cultural Day, a celebration of the tiny Hogg Hummock community founded by emancipated slaves after the Civil War. Hogg Hummock is one of the few Gullah-Geechee communities remaining in the South, where slaves who worked isolated island plantations retained much of their African heritage.
Mawuli Davis, an attorney for some of the people injured in the collapse, told lawmakers his clients have been contacted by state investigators for interviews but not by anyone offering assistance.
Lawmakers said they agree that the state should do more to assist the victims. But how much influence they will have isn't clear: The Senate Urban Affairs Committee is made up of six Democrats, while Republicans control the legislature and the governor's office.
“The state has responsibility,” said Sen. Donzella James, an Atlanta Democrat and the committee's chairperson. “We’re having this hearing to find out what it is exactly they're responsible for.”
The Department of Natural Resources, with assistance from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, is investigating what caused the collapse. But victims' lawyers have said they don't trust the state agency to investigate itself, and last week Attorney General Chris Carr said he had called in an engineering firm to conduct an independent, parallel investigation.
No one from the Department of Natural Resources spoke before the committee Thursday.
Last weekend the department offered free counseling services to residents of Sapelo Island as well as on the mainland in McIntosh County. It said in a news release that “ongoing mental health resources will be provided to those in need” and that Natural Resources Commissioner Walter Rabon contacted families of those killed and “shared a phone number with them should they need anything.”
The news release also included a hyperlink to an online form that injured people can fill out to file a liability claim with the state.
A Department of Natural Resources spokesperson did not immediately respond to an email message seeking more information on how it is assisting victims.
A portion of the gangway which collapsed Saturday afternoon remains visible on Sapelo Island in McIntosh county, Ga., Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Lewis Levine)
Regina Brinson, center, weeps at a news conference Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2024, while speaking alongside her mother, Katrena Alexander and attorney Ben Crump during a news conference in Jacksonville, Fla. Crump represents families of three of the seven people killed when a ferry dock walkway collapsed on Sapelo Island, Ga., on Saturday, Oct. 19. (AP Photo/Russ Bynum)
Wilbert Gardner, left, hugs Katrena Alexander while Alexander's daughter, Regina Brinson, right, looks on during a news conference Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2024, in Jacksonville, Fla, A dock gangway collapse happened as people were leaving a cultural festival on Sapelo Island, Georgia, on Saturday, Oct. 19, 2024. Alexander's brother, Isaiah Thomas, was among the dead. Gardner had a friend who was hospitalized with injuries. (AP Photo/Russ Bynum)
FILE - A portion of the collapsed gangway remains visible on Sapelo Island in McIntosh County, Ga., on Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Lewis Levine, File)
