A week after the passage of storm Dana and the deadly floods in Valencia, Spain is counting its dead and missing. Among the 89 people officially wanted, two young brothers, Izan and Ruben who were swept away by the waves last Tuesday.
Izan, 5 years old, and Ruben, 3 years old, disappeared on October 29 while they were playing in their living room in Torrent in the province of Valencia in Spain.
“The house exploded”
It was around 6 p.m. that water began to rush into their house. The little ones were then with their father, Victor, who was trying as best he could to reassure them, the aunt explained to RTVE.
It was then that a wall of their house gave way due to a downpour: “The house exploded”specifies the little ones' aunt. The three members of the family were swept away by a strong current towards a ravine located near their home.
The father managed to cling to a tree, but the young brothers disappeared in the waves. Victor remained hanging on for 5 hours, until the current calmed down, and then set out to look for his children, with the help of emergency services. But Izan and Ruben were nowhere to be found.
“The situation is complicated”
The mother was working in a supermarket at the time of the tragedy and only learned the terrible news the next day: “We are devastated”she declared to the RTVE. “They are still so young and so many days have already passed.”
In the town of Torrent, emergency services meet every day from 10 a.m. to try to find the missing. Questioned by the Spanish press agency EFE, Domingo Lopez, a civil protection agent explains that “the situation is complicated” due to numerous debris and mud.
It is entirely possible that the two brothers are “under a layer of mud two meters thick”, he indicates.
Floods in the Valencia region in Spain have left more than 210 dead according to the latest provisional report published on November 6. This Thursday the number of missing rose to 93 and could increase further in the coming days.
