: Report Cycling in the mud, mutual aid and “canned goods and more canned goods”… In Spain, disaster victims manage as best they can to organize their daily lives

In Spain, a week after the monster floods in the Valencia region, the death toll of 217 is still provisional and the situation in many localities remains chaotic. On the bridge that separates La Torre from Valencia, the flow of volunteers armed with boots, brooms and sticks is almost uninterrupted.

Among them, Carlos sneaks in, bicycle and backpack loaded with food, with ham, potatoes, yogurts for the children. “It's for a work colleague, he explains. She's been here since Tuesday, she can walk, but with two children, it's more complicated… We bring that to her with the colleagues. She can't go out by car, it's closed. Everyone is walking, cars are in the middle of the road, everything is cut off“, he describes.

On the ground, the mud is stubborn. Nearly a week after the disaster, the ground remains brown in places. Maria pushes her cart with difficulty: “I took what I could find, I don't have anything to cook with. I don't have a microwave. I only have canned goods and more canned goods…”she whispers.

She lost everything in less than 10 minutes last Tuesday, nothing remains of her apartment on the ground floor. “I no longer have household appliances, I no longer have a bed, I no longer have cupboards…, Maria lists. The bra I have is full of mud, the last pair of panties I own are the ones I'm wearing. This dress was given to me by the neighbor, and the boots I'm wearing are the same. Yesterday I slept at the neighbors' house, and I suppose that tonight I will sleep at their place too.”

“We don’t have a bed, we don’t have anything!”

Maria, resident near Valencia

at franceinfo

She also explains that the toilets in her makeshift accommodation are clogged. She and her neighbors relieve themselves in a pot dumped on the street.

In this district of La Torre, there are no longer any buses or metro, the roads are largely impassable. On the other side of the bridge, a pharmacist sees a succession of disoriented residents: “On one side, there is horror and, on the other, normality. People come on foot, walking. Civil protection or the national police come here with people's cards to bring them their medicines when they can't go out. The workers can't all come, there are some who are on forced leave and others who can't come because the roads are blocked.”she explains.

And if the mud gradually leaves the streets and homes, the anger persists, with the feeling that the authorities have not been up to the task.