RJoining Algemesi, this town of 30,000 inhabitants located 30 kilometers south of Valencia, is an exercise in patience. With heavy rains in recent days killing some 200 people in this southern Spanish province, most roads leading here have been cut off by floods. During the night from Tuesday to Wednesday, a wave of mud swept away everything. The water rose to more than 1.50 meters, carrying stones, tree trunks, cars and everything in its path.
Three days later, the scars of these devastating floods are everywhere. The streets, the squares, the ground floors of homes, the cellars, the basements, the parking lots, everything was drowned by this thick and sticky mud. This Friday, seventy-two hours after this unleashing of the elements, Algemesi was still struggling in this caramel silt molasses. With one priority: clean, clear.
Soiled by mud and water, furniture, household appliances and other sofas are now piled up on the sidewalks.
Fabien Cottereau / SO
“It was only at the end of the evening, when we were already flooded, that we started to receive the alerts…”
On the sidewalks, everyone disposes of their soiled furniture in a strange garage sale where second hand goods will not exist. The kitchens did not resist, nor did the household appliances. Washing machines and refrigerators pile up outside with sofas, cupboards, toys… The sporting goods store is nothing more than a memory. The gym no longer exists. So, from one street to another, we empty, we scoop. With in the background the deafening noise of the pumps running at full speed to evacuate the water.
“We didn’t know anything”
“Around 8 p.m., we started to have clear water in the streets,” says Sergio, a Franco-Spanish psychologist who has lived here since 1999. “In less than an hour,” he continues, clinging to his ice ax to don't slip, a muddy wave came towards us, we didn't have time to react. » He affirms: “We were not warned, we knew nothing. » Like many, he is waiting for explanations: “You should know that the flooding started on Tuesday around 11 a.m., but 100 kilometers north of here. Upstream, therefore. And it was only ten hours later, at the end of the evening, when we were already flooded, that we started to receive the alerts…”
Fabien Cottereau / SO
Living in Algemesi since 1999, where a wave of mud swept away everything, Sergio says: “The alerts came too late. »
However, this town is used to cold drops, these atmospheric phenomena which, once a year, cause torrential rains. But, on Tuesday evening, the volumes of precipitation exploded, reaching 400 liters of water per square meter…
Underground car parks constituted one of the most formidable traps on Tuesday evening
If the city already experienced catastrophic floods in 1982, on the scale of the worst, these are promised a place of choice. Broom in hand and boots on his feet, like all his neighbors, Roser tries to breathe new life into his house whose doors are wide open. Inside, a big void: “We tried to bring everything we could upstairs, but we lost the living room, our kitchen, the piano…” Roser is installed in one of the streets main streets of the city, Calle de la Muntanya. Here, the wave lifted the cars, throwing them against each other, on top of each other, forming piles of dislocated metal sheets. The businesses were gutted.
Fabien Cottereau / SO
Armed with shovels, spades and brooms, many volunteers from neighboring communities came to help residents clean up in the city.
An open-air scrapyard
Faced with the scale of the disaster, volunteers from neighboring communities flocked to it. “I have friends and family here,” says Carlos, in his twenties. I came to help them, but also to do what I can for others. Seeing all this gives me goosebumps. » On the town hall square, a municipal employee at the controls of a backhoe loader unceremoniously clears the cars which still obstruct the streets. SUVs are lifted like straws. Water entered the passenger compartments, the ice jams smashed the windshields and the doors, the electronics were damaged. The city is a huge open-air junkyard.
A little further away, firefighters are working with fire hoses. Here too, the challenge remains the same: ridding the city of its mud. In underground car parks, operations are even more delicate. Lower levels should be probed. And the worst is undoubtedly to come. In recent hours, several bodies have reportedly been found. On site, emergency services did not comment. But the parking lots constituted one of the most formidable traps on Tuesday evening, maintains Sergio: “When the water rose, several people wanted to get their cars out, but they did not have time. Yes, there were deaths. » Tuesday evening, he did not go to get his: “It is under three meters of water with all my papers in it. I can't leave the city anymore. »
