Mud-caked volunteers clean flood debris in a Spanish town as authorities struggle to respond

CHIVA, Spain. (AP) — Mud cakes her boots, splatters her leggings and the gloves holding her broom. Brown specks freckle her cheeks.

The mire covering Alicia Montero is the signature uniform of the impromptu army of volunteers who for a third day Friday shoveled and swept out the muck and debris that filled the small town of Chiva in Valencia after flash floods swept through the region. Spain's deadliest natural disaster in living memory has left at least 205 people dead with untold numbers still missing, and countless lives in tatters.

As police and emergency workers continue the grim search for bodies, authorities appear overwhelmed by the enormity of the disaster, and survivors are relying on the esprit de corps of volunteers who have rushed in to fill the void.

While hundreds of people in cars and on foot have been streaming in from Valencia city to the suburbs to help, Montero and her friends are locals of Chiva, where at least seven people died when Tuesday’s storm unleashed its fury.

“I never thought this could happen. It moves me to see my town in this shape,” Montero tells The Associated Press. “We have always had autumn storms, but nothing like this.”

She says she barely avoided the floods when she was driving home Tuesday, and that if she had got on the road five minutes later she believes she would have been swept away like dozens of cars still stranded on the highway that crosses a flood plain between her town and the city of Valencia, about 30 kilometers (18 miles) to the east.

Tractors roar through Chiva's narrow streets, only briefly stopping or slowing to allow people to toss broken doors, shattered furniture and other debris into the beds before churning their way up, away from the epicenter of the destruction.

Residents and volunteers meanwhile shovel and sweep out the layers of mud that coat the floors of the ruined shops and homes, the air abuzz with frenetic energy. People carry buckets of water from a large ornamental pool in a town square to wash away the mire. Three young boys take a break to kick a soccer ball around on the slippery street.

Newcomers are easy to spot because they are clean, but a few steps down Chiva's slippery cobblestones and they are quickly marked with mud.

“How many hours have we been at it? Who knows?” Montero says, while taking a breather from cleaning near a gorge that was filled with a crushing wall of water just days earlier.

“We work, stop to eat a sandwich they give us, and keep on working.”

“As much mud in the streets as if the waters had but newly retired from the face of the earth,” is Charles Dickens' description of 19th century London in his novel “Bleak House.”

In Chiva and other parts of Valencia — Paiporta, Masanasa, Barrio de la Torre, Alfafar — mud has become synonymous with death and destruction. The mire flowed into houses and crawled into cars, smashing some vehicles apart and easily lifting and moving others.

The storm this week unleashed more rain on Chiva in eight hours than the town had experienced in the preceding 20 months. The deluge powered a flood that knocked down two of the four bridges in the town, and made a third unsafe to cross. The waters have now receded and the Civil Guard divers are gone, but police keep searching the gorge, smashed homes and underground garages, concerned that the mud could be hiding more bodies.

“Entire houses have disappeared. We don’t know if there were people inside or not,” Mayor Amparo Fort told RNE radio.

There are so many people coming to help the hardest-hit areas that the authorities have asked them not to drive or walk there, because they are blocking the roads needed by the emergency services.

“It is very important that you return home,” said regional President Carlos Mazón, who thanked the volunteers for their goodwill. The regional government has asked volunteers to gather at a large cultural center in the city Saturday morning to organize work crews and transport.

Electricity was at last restored for Chiva’s 20,000 residents on Thursday night, and there is still no running water. Local governments have been distributing water, food and basic necessities in towns across Valencia affected by the flash floods, and the Red Cross is using its vast network of aid to help those affected.

In Chiva, the Civil Guard police officers have been searching collapsed houses and the gorge for bodies, and directly traffic. Firefighters are helping ensure buildings were safe. Some 500 soldiers have been deployed in the Valencia region to deliver water and essential goods to those in need, and more are on the way.

But so far no military units are in Chiva, where the wave of solidarity among average citizens underscores the dearth of official help. The vibe is one of townsfolk just getting on with it.

A man weeps inside the Astoria Cinema, which has been transformed into a supply depot. The theater is filled with piles of water bottles and fruit. People make sandwiches. One group of young men arrive and drop off bottled water before picking up shovels and brooms and joining the fray.

Just across a square at the town hall, a sign says everyone is allowed to take two bottles of water a day. Volunteers hand out baguette sandwiches.

Cleaning out the bakery that has been in her family for five generations, María Teresa Sánchez hopes it can continue, but she is not sure if her 100-year-old oven can be salvaged.

“Chiva will take a long time to recover from this,” she said. “But it is true that we have not felt alone. We are helping each other. And at the end that is really what we embrace, that spirit of being a town that is isolated and nobody has come to help, yet see how we are all out in the street? That is the shining light to this story.”

Medrano reported from Madrid. Associated Press writers Colleen Barry in Milan and Jamey Keaten in Geneva, contributed to this report.

People clear mud from the street after floods in Massanassa, just outside of Valencia, Spain, Friday, Nov. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Alberto Saiz)

A general view of an area affected by floods in Chiva, Spain, Friday, Nov. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

People collect food in an area affected by floods in Chiva, Spain, Friday, Nov. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

Two people look out over an area affected by floods in Chiva, Spain, Friday, Nov. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

A civil guard searches for survivors in cars piled up on the outskirts of Valencia, Spain, Friday, Nov. 1, 2024 after flooding. (AP Photo/Alberto Saiz)

People clean mud from a shop affected by floods in Chiva, Spain, Friday, Nov. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

A man sweeps by piled up cars after floods in Massanassa, just outside of Valencia, Spain, Friday, Nov. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Alberto Saiz)

People clear debris from the street after floods in Massanassa, just outside of Valencia, Spain, Friday, Nov. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Alberto Saiz)

Residents and volunteers try toiling remove mud in an area affected by floods in Paiporta, near Valencia, Spain, Friday, Nov. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Alberto Saiz)

People walks through the mud at an area affected by floods in Paiporta, near Valencia, Spain, Friday, Nov. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Alberto Saiz)

A woman rests as residents and volunteers clean up an area affected by floods in Paiporta, near Valencia, Spain, Friday, Nov. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Alberto Saiz)

Damaged cars are seen outside a shopping centre after floods in Valencia, Spain, Friday, Nov. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Alberto Saiz)

Cars are seen half submerged after floods in Valencia, Spain, Friday, Nov. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Alberto Saiz)

Broken tombstones and debris is seen inside a flood damaged cemetery on the outskirts of Valencia, Spain, Friday, Nov. 1, 2024 after flooding in the region. (AP Photo/Alberto Saiz)

Damage is seen inside a cemetery on the outskirts of Valencia, Spain, Friday, Nov. 1, 2024 after flooding. (AP Photo/Alberto Saiz)

A man walks inside a flood damaged cemetery on the outskirts of Valencia, Spain, Friday, Nov. 1, 2024 after flooding in the region. (AP Photo/Alberto Saiz)

Workers repair damaged tombstones and clean mud inside a cemetery on the outskirts of Valencia, Spain, Friday, Nov. 1, 2024 after flooding in the region. (AP Photo/Alberto Saiz)

A mud splattered statue of Christ is seen inside a cemetery on the outskirts of Valencia, Spain, Friday, Nov. 1, 2024 after flooding in the region. (AP Photo/Alberto Saiz)

A flooded wall of tombs are seen inside a cemetery on the outskirts of Valencia, Spain, Friday, Nov. 1, 2024 after flooding in the region. (AP Photo/Alberto Saiz)

Damage is seen outside a cemetery on the outskirts of Valencia, Spain, Friday, Nov. 1, 2024 after flooding. (AP Photo/Alberto Saiz)

Cars are seen half submerged after floods in Valencia, Spain, Friday, Nov. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Alberto Saiz)

Vehicles are strewn across railway tracks after floods on the outskirts of Valencia, Spain, Friday, Nov. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Alberto Saiz)

Cars are strewn on the side on a main road after floods in Valencia, Spain, Friday, Nov. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Alberto Saiz)

A man walks on a mud-covered road after flooding in Valencia, Spain, Thursday, Oct. 31, 2024. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

Cars are seen half submerged after floods in Valencia, Spain, Friday, Nov. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Alberto Saiz)

People clear away mud from inside a flood damaged cemetery on the outskirts of Valencia, Spain, Friday, Nov. 1, 2024 after flooding in the region. (AP Photo/Alberto Saiz)

NEW YORK (AP) — No quick dispatching of disease investigators. No televised news conference to inform the public. No timely health alerts to doctors.

In the midst of a hantavirus outbreak that involves Americans and is making headlines around the world, the U.S. government's top public health agency, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has been uncharacteristically missing in action, according to a number of experts.

To President Donald Trump, "We seem to have things under very good control," as he told reporters Friday evening.

To experts, the situation aboard a cruise ship has not spiraled because, unlike COVID-19 or measles or the flu, hantavirus does not spread easily. It has been health experts in other countries, not the United States, who have been dealing primarily with the outbreak in the past week.

“The CDC is not even a player," said Lawrence Gostin, an international public health expert at Georgetown University. “I've never seen that before.”

Not until late Friday did CDC actions accelerate.

Health officials confirmed the deployment of a team to Spain's Canary Islands, where the ship was expected to arrive early Sunday local time, to meet the Americans onboard. They said a second team will go to Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska as part of a plan to evacuate American passengers from the ship to a quarantine center. Also, the CDC issued its first health alert to U.S. doctors, advising them of the possibility of imported cases.

The CDC's diminished role in this outbreak is an indicator the agency is no longer the force in international health or the protector of domestic health that it once was, some experts said.

The hantavirus outbreak is “a sentinel event” that speaks to “how well the country is prepared for a disease threat. And right now, I’m very sorry to say that we are not prepared,” said Dr. Jeanne Marrazzo, chief executive officer of the Infectious Diseases Society of America.

Early last month, a 70-year-old Dutch man developed a feverish illness on a cruise ship traveling from Argentina to Antarctica and some islands in the South Atlantic. He died less than a week later. More people became sick, including the man's wife and a German woman, who both died.

Hantavirus was first identified as a cause of sickness of one of the cases on May 2. The World Health Organization swung into action and by Monday was calling it an outbreak. About two dozen Americans were on the ship, including about seven who disembarked last month and 17 who remained on board.

For decades, the CDC partnered with the WHO in such situations. The CDC acted as a mainstay of any international investigation, providing staff and expertise to help unravel any outbreak mystery, develop ways to control it and communicate to the public what they should know and how they should worry.

Such actions were a large reason why the CDC developed a reputation as the world's premier public health agency.

But this time, the WHO has been center stage. It made the risk assessment that has told people the outbreak is not a pandemic threat.

“I don’t think this is a giant threat to the United States,” said Jennifer Nuzzo, director of Brown University’s Pandemic Center. But how this situation has played out “just shows how empty and vapid the CDC is right now,” she said.

The current situation comes after 16 tumultuous months during which the Trump administration withdrew from the WHO, has restricted CDC scientists from talking to international counterparts at times and embarked on a plan to build its own international public health network through one-on-one agreements with individual countries.

The administration has laid off thousands of CDC scientists and public health professionals, including members of the agency's ship sanitation program.

As this was playing out, Trump's health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., said he was working to “restore the CDC’s focus on infectious disease, invest in innovation, and rebuild trust through integrity and transparency.”

The CDC has not been completely silent on hantavirus.

The agency on Wednesday issued a short statement that said the risk to the American public is “extremely low,” and described the U.S. government as “the world’s leader in global health security.”

Said Nuzzo: “Not only was that not helpful, it actually does damage because a core principle of public health communications is humility.”

The CDC's acting director, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, posted a message on social media that the agency was lending its expertise in coordinating with other federal agencies and international authorities. Arizona officials this week said they learned from the CDC that one of the Americans who left the ship — a person with no symptoms and not considered contagious — had already returned to the state. WHO officials said the CDC has been sharing technical information.

The CDC also is “monitoring the health status and preparing medical support for all of the American passengers on the cruise,” Bhattacharya wrote.

But federal health officials have mostly been tight-lipped, declining interview requests.

In interviews this week, some experts made a comparison with a 2020 incident involving the Diamond Princess, a cruise ship docked in Japan that became the setting of one of the first large COVID-19 outbreaks outside of China.

The CDC sent personnel to the port, helped evacuate American passengers, ran quarantines, shared genetic data on the virus, coordinated with the WHO and Japan, held public briefings and rapidly published reports “that became the world’s reference data on cruise ship COVID transmission,” said Dr. Tom Frieden, a former CDC director.

Some aspects of the international response to the Diamond Princess were criticized, and it did not halt the outbreak or stop COVID-19’s spread across the world. But some experts say it was not for the CDC's lack of trying.

“The CDC was right on top of it, very visible, very active in trying to manage and contain it,” Gostin said, while the agency's work now is delayed and subdued.

Instead of working with nearly all of the world's nations through the WHO, the Trump administration has pursued bilateral health agreements with individual nations for information sharing, public health support, and what it describes as “the introduction of innovative American technologies.” Roughly 30 agreements are currently in place.

That's not sufficient, Gostin said. “You can't possibly cover a global health crisis by doing one-on-one deals with countries here and there,” he said.

Associated Press writers Ali Swenson in New York, Darlene Superville in Washington and Susan Montoya Bryan in Albuquerque, New Mexico, contributed to this report.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Passengers on the the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship, MV Hondius, watch epidemiologists board the boat in Praia, during their voyage to Spain's port of Tenerife, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo)

Workers set up temporary shelters in the area where passengers from the MV Hondius cruise ship are expected to arrive at the port of Granadilla in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, Saturday, May 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

Crew members of the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship, MV Hondius, wait their turns for a first interview with epidemiologists, during the voyage to Spain's port of Tenerife, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo)

Health workers in protective gear evacuate patients from the MV Hondius cruise ship into an ambulance at a port in Praia, Cape Verde, Wednesday, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)

A Spanish Civil Guard officer inspects the area where passengers from the MV Hondius cruise ship are expected to arrive at the port of Granadilla in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, Saturday, May 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)