On October 29, the day of the deadly floods in Spain, Vincent Malavielle from Hérault and his wife “Fina” were preparing to take the road to the suburbs of Valencia, where families and friends live, now affected. Midi Libre met them.
“Vicente, don't leave, we are flooded!” : on the morning of the deadly floods of October 29 in Spain, the latest toll of which stands at 223 dead and 78 missing south of Valencia, the BMW-S8 of Vincent Malavielle, 72, and his wife Josette, the French name of Josefa, “Fina”, is loaded, ready for the seven-hour drive that separates Mauguio, east of Montpellier, from Bugarra, in the suburbs of Valencia. Josefa was born there, and the couple, who bought the family home, do not go a year without returning. After the alert from friend Carmelo, “we first thought about postponing our departure until the next day, how could we imagine…”testifies Vincent Malavielle, retired, head of the ethics committee of the French Camargue racing federation, who was delighted to participate in a bull festival at the weekend.
The rest, they follow it on BFM. Without electricity, the village is cut off from the world for three days. Josefa, née Cervera, has a sad feeling of déjà vu. In 1957, the overflowing of the Rio Turia, the “Gran Riada” of Valencia, 81 deaths and irreversible damage to farms, had driven the Cerveras from the village. Fina's parents looked for work elsewhere, closer to the city, in Quart de Poblet. Twenty years later, they arrived in Hérault, in a village where the Spanish emigrated from the beginning of the 20th century, mainly from Lorca, further south of Valencia.
Midi Libre – S.G.
“My older sister remembers the flood of 1957, I was two years old”recalls Josefa, too bruised to return there already: “My cousin sent me photos, I cried, it hurts me so much to see that.” Vincent, her husband, accepts the trip. In Bugarra, in the family stronghold. In Benisano, an intact village where solidarity is in full swing. In Pedralba, three dead, two missing, and signs of bad weather everywhere. In Chiva, devastated, one of the epicenters of the phenomenon.
“Thousands of kilos of oranges to collect”
On October 29, the Rio Turia, diverted south of Valencia in the 1960s, still present below the village, hit Bugarra, 800 inhabitants, without killing. “We are lucky, we have no deaths, only material damage”quickly blurts out Mayor Teressa Cervera Garcia, interviewed in front of the El Ratico bar restaurant, which serves a delicious “bacalao” for next to nothing, on Calle Major. The elected official's phone, filled with hundreds of videos of raging waves, doesn't stop ringing. We are waiting for the expertise of a bridge moved over a meter by the violence of the water. Will the trucks going back and forth to the orange fields on the other side be able to get through? “There are thousands of kilos of oranges to collect”specifies the elected official. In 2012, when a fire required the village to be evacuated, it was “less worried”.
Midi Libre – S.G.
The bridge issue is crucial for the local economy, as harvesting has just begun. Will the village be a priority for aid when the emergency is everywhere?
Arturo Sanchez, director of Cobatur, the cooperative located overlooking the devastated football field, the campsite where “all is lost”, and the swimming pool filled with mud, worries. Forgotten the promises of a record year, at 30,000 tonnes: “We have not yet quantified the losses, we are counting on 10% to 15%”.
Because of the bridge, and because the Turia has washed away the irrigation canals, the 2025 season is now under threat of a scorching summer.
Improbable piles of tree trunks, furniture, torn off railings
On a territory of a few dozen square kilometers, scenes of daily life and the bucolic landscapes of the stretching summer alternate with the abnormality of the moment: children and their parents hurry along the road to the school in Pedralba, and women get their nails done at Diana Gomez, the only intact store on Antonio Machado Street in Chiva. The workers of Cobatur, the Bugarra citrus cooperative, take, as usual, the almuerzo, the almost institutional mid-morning “snack” break.
Everywhere, postcard orange fields. Everywhere, mud, and piles where tree trunks, furniture, torn off railings, synthetic football pitches, tangle in a surreal way in a street, at the side of a road, in a “barranco”.
Midi Libre – S.G.
Midi Libre – S.G.
Midi Libre – S.G.
The word, difficult to translate into French, comes up in every conversation. It is there, in these deep ravines usually dry or with a trickle of water running through them, that the Turia rushed in, trapping the inhabitants in the “chalets”, second homes built illegally but tolerated, or surprising them in their escape by car.
“We have passed the most difficult part”
In some villages, help took four days to respond. But the Spaniards stood together.
“We had up to a thousand people to help us, there are more urgent situations elsewhere now, but we will have to rebuild, it will take months, and a lot of money”estimates Toni Minguez, police officer, who filters traffic on the bridge with pillars dug by the Turia, north of Pedralba, opposite the Chiringuito, a restaurant deserted by workers. Expertise will be needed to reopen the route. In the meantime, the excavators are busy in the mud. Drinking water has not returned everywhere, “210 houses are deprived of it”indicates the mayor, Andoni Leon, surprised by a wave which submerged his car on October 29, while he “went around the barrancos”. We are still looking for the two missing people, a man and his daughter.
Midi Libre – ORANE ROBIN
Midi Libre – S.G.
“We have passed the most difficult part”hopes the elected official, in front of the social center where bocadillos await the victims, and not “those who need nothing”warns a message also posted on the shed opposite filled with donations, “useless” when it comes to clothes, so precious when it comes to shovels, buckets, brooms, household products, mops…
Invigorated by “the great solidarity” of the Spanish people, the first magistrate lists today the requests, “both material and financial”. He worries that they “do not happen” to this small town of 3,300 inhabitants, in the twists and turns of administrative and political circuits, between the deputation and the government of Spain.
“We are alive, that’s the main thing”
Antonio Campos, a long-time friend, and Luisa Cervera, Fina's first cousin, who came to meet Vincent Malavielle, fell into his arms. Carmelo Aliaga, that he “consider yourself a brother”and his wife Maria José, are not far away.
Antonio's new house, at the top of the village, was spared. But the water rose 4 meters in the street of Sequia (drought), where he kept the family house. She spared the relatives who lived there. For a week, Antonio has been stirring up mud.
Luisa, opposition municipal councilor in Bugarra, only has harsh words under a smile: “What are we going to change, so that tomorrow, people do not die in the barrancos? We imagine that this will not happen for 100 years, but with climate change, it will perhaps be in five years !”
Midi Libre – S.G.
“We are alive, that’s the main thing”replies Maria José, when asked how she is, while Carmelo finds the only road that leads to Chiva, after an hour of hitting dead ends. Last week, the couple lived in seclusion. Their first release was for “buy a transistor with batteries”the only way to get information. “I hope we will be united enough to get out of all this”slips the former mason, brother of Jose-Vincente Aliaga, right side of the triumphant Valencia FC of the 80s, teammate of the Argentinian Mario Kempes and the German midfielder Reiner Bonhof. “We’re going to see José”announces Carmelo.
“It’s a tragedy”
His friend, a honey producer, lives in the old center of Chiva, on Enrique Ponce Street. The bullfighter, “favorite son” of the town, there is the statue of the bullfighter. The parish of San Juan Bautista is just a stone's throw away.
Midi Libre – S.G.
José Sanchez-Canobes and his brother-in-law, Juan Morea Sanchez, next door, show people around their ground floor ravaged by muddy water rising to two meters. Juan, a “miraculous” who almost got sucked in when closing his gate, scrapes the still liquid mud from an old radio with a diligent and derisory gesture. The raised hood of José's car will probably not be enough to save it. But the heavy metal barrels protected the honey production.
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He also saw a “miracle” under his window, the driver of a stuck car clung to a grate, and neighbors extended a saving hand to him from a window.
“It’s a tragedy”they repeat. We also talk about light things: the family living in Calvisson, in the Gard, the happiness of an unborn child at Christmas. “It will be a girl”says Maria Pilar, José's daughter who consoles a neighbor and is enthusiastic about the generosity of the youngest, armed with shovels and buckets, who offer their help in a ghost town devastated as if by a war, torn apart along the barranco del Gayo.
“People are crying, giving thanks, it’s very moving”
Vicente Rioja, the owner of the family hotel-restaurant that bears his name, in Benisano, an intact village a few dozen kilometers away, served hundreds of meals this week in Chiva, prepared partly with donations, in Chiva . “Every day, I go to a disaster-stricken village”explains the restaurateur, who lost regulars in the disaster.
Since October 24, new customers have been arriving from all over the country. She leaves the hotel at 7 a.m. and returns at nightfall covered in mud. “People are crying, giving thanks, it’s very moving,” testify Jorge Barbero, Alberto and Adrian Fernandez, who arrived from Arganda del Rey, in the Madrid suburbs, with two trucks full of food and equipment.
In the evening, we talk football, anyway. But last Tuesday, the defeat of Real Madrid, which released a million for the victims, was anecdotal. Bruised Spain has its mind elsewhere: pain, anger and the chance to be alive.
