At lunch time, residents of Paiporta queue for a meal distributed by an association: in this Spanish town ravaged by the floods of October 29, the mud has disappeared but life is still slowing down, a month after the tragedy.
“Help is still very lacking,” laments José Moret, a 70-year-old retiree who waits with several dozen residents of this town in the Valencia region (south-east), considered the epicenter of the bad weather which caused at least 230 dead.
Behind him, the traces of the disaster are still visible, notably in the Poyo ravine, from where waves of furious water swept over the town at the end of October, killing 45 people, the highest death toll in nearly 80 municipalities. affected by bad weather.
Although some businesses have reopened, the return to normal life remains complicated for many residents who have lost part of their belongings, starting with their cars, piled up like immense mountains of scrap metal on the outskirts of the city.
– “Abandoned” –
“Psychologically, we are very affected. And physically, very tired,” confides to AFP Raquel Rodriguez, who came to participate in the cleaning work, her clothes protected by a disposable suit and her hair stained with mud.
The evening of the floods, this 43-year-old economist was surprised by the downpours as she left the supermarket. She was able to take refuge at a height, but remains in shock from what she experienced.
Her apartment, located on the ground floor, was flooded and she has been sleeping with her family for a month. She spends her days removing the mud accumulated in the parking lot of her residence, with the help of other residents.
This titanic work works thanks to “volunteering” and “private companies”, which have provided their support, specifies the forty-year-old. Because “on the public administration side, it’s zero”, she gets annoyed, summarizing the feeling of her neighbors, who feel “abandoned”.
Despite the financial support measures adopted by the central government and the region, Mari Carmen Cuenca says she also feels alone: in her apartment, located a few blocks from the Poyo ravine, she was able to save almost nothing.
“There are only four walls left, that’s all,” explains the 54-year-old woman, who wears borrowed clothes and has been living with friends for a month.
In his neighborhood, many homes are still empty and gutted. On the balconies, banners displaying slogans hostile to the authorities were hung, alongside messages of thanks to the volunteers who came to lend a helping hand to the victims.
– “Locked up for 29 days” –
“We will come back stronger”, we can read on the walls of the town where 4,000 children have still not returned to school, due to a lack of viable solutions to educate them, according to parent-teacher associations.
“I don’t have a car, I lost it, and my eight-year-old daughter has been locked up for 29 days,” assures Pilar Roger.
At the beginning of November, social anger gave rise to the start of a scuffle when Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, the president of the Valencia region Carlos Mazón and the King and Queen of Spain, Felipe VI and Letizia, came to the common.
Booed and targeted with mud, MM. Sánchez and Mazón had to turn back while the sovereigns had shortened their trip.
If this episode has left its mark, some in the city now hope to see the end of the tunnel, like Eva and Arantxa, whose bookstore was completely destroyed but who wish to restart their activity as soon as possible.
“The first days, we didn’t know where to start. But little by little, we received help” and, finally, “we decided that it was possible,” explains Eva Rodriguez.
A few meters further on, residents queue to buy a ticket for the Christmas lottery, a very popular tradition in Spain. Among them, Paqui González, a 53-year-old housewife: “we lost our cars, we were unlucky, let’s hope that this time we win!”.
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