Nicolas Issaly, originally from Villefranche-de-Rouergue, has lived in Spain for 16 years, helping out in the neighborhoods ravaged by torrents of mud around Valence with his family.
Originally from Villefranche-de-Rouergue, Nicolas Issaly has been based in Valence, Spain, since 2008, with his wife Ana, a Valencienne he met in Dijon during their post-doctorate at the National Institute of Agronomic Research. They are the happy parents of two Franco-Spanish children born in Toulouse: Pablo, 20 years old, veterinary student in Zaragoza, and Maria, 17 years old, high school student in final year.
They experienced the first hours of the floods on television, incredulous and shocked by a disaster that reached a scale that no one could imagine. Reassured to know that their Spanish family was not impacted, and after giving good news to those based in France, all four volunteered to lend a helping hand armed with shovels and buckets.
Since November 1, they have been going very regularly to neighborhoods ravaged by torrents of mud. With a neutral outlook, even though he has lived in Spain for 16 years, Nicolas Issaly highlights Spanish solidarity, particularly among young people who are reluctant to give up or give up. While being critical of the management, and, above all, the lack of management, of the different political parties.
“Before us, the devastation and misfortune of the local population…”
Where were you when the water engulfed certain neighborhoods of Valencia?
First of all, I would like to point out that the water did not reach Valencia because we are “protected” by the bed of the new route of the Turia river built after the floods of 1956. It borders the city at the west and joins the merchant port of Valencia, the 4th of this type in Europe. Suffice to say that he fulfilled his role perfectly by protecting the city from a disaster that would have been much more deadly. In barely an hour, this canal, usually dry, was transformed into a river with devastating currents.
Unfortunately, the towns of the inner southwest suburbs have been swallowed up by cubic meters of water and mud from the local rivers which find their mouths in the Albufera Natural Park before flowing into the sea.
Tuesday October 29, around noon, the first images of flooding in municipalities further west (Utiel, 50 km from Valence) began to circulate on social networks. It wasn't raining, and it didn't rain in Valencia that day. I got home around 6 p.m. and it was only around 8 p.m. that we realized the scale of the situation, seeing the first images of the suburb on the local news channel, then on the news. nationally at 9 p.m. As I recall, it was only around 8 p.m. that the alert was given when all the phones started ringing in unison in the house.
“It was first of all disbelief that overcame us”
What were your reactions?
It was initially disbelief that overcame us when we saw the first images (destroyed bridges, torrent of water in the streets washing away everything in its path…). We heard from our nephew who lives in Carlet (flooded area but spared compared to other nearby suburbs) who reassured us that he and his family were out of danger. I think we stayed up very late at night watching the live news. Since we live in Valencia, we went to work the next day and Maria went to high school. Faced with the extent of the damage (no metros and trains, airport shut down for 24 hours, ring roads partially destroyed and impassable) making traffic impossible around Valencia, we teleworked on Thursday October 30.
“The Spaniards have a concept of solidarity, volunteerism, a natural emotional empathy that would make any Aveyron resident green with envy”
Was volunteering obvious to you?
Yes, without a shadow of hesitation. The Spanish have a concept of solidarity, volunteerism, a natural emotional empathy that would make any Aveyron resident green with envy. It was therefore quite natural that we went to Picanya, Friday November 1st (public holiday), to help the family of a work colleague of my wife. We didn't even ask ourselves the question, it was in the order of things to go there.
We left very early in the morning because from Valencia, it takes a good hour's walk to get to “ground zero”*. Before us, the devastation and misfortune of the local population… But, at the same time, a continuous flow of volunteers armed with shovels and buckets gave us the dose of courage we all needed. We are three days after the start of the disaster and not a single police officer, soldier or firefighter (at least where we are). I would like to emphasize one point: among the incessant flow of volunteers crossing the new “cauce del rio Turia” (“Turia river bed”), there is all the Valencian youth (high school students, students and thirty-somethings). It was incredible. The next day, Maria went to help out at a school; we went to one of the many collection centers for food and basic necessities.
How did you organize yourself for this?
I returned to work on Monday, November 4, working remotely, and my wife – who works in a regional research center (the equivalent of INRA in France) – returned there during the week with her work colleagues and the little one. equipment used in the field (shovels, wheelbarrows, etc.) because they were authorized to travel in utility vehicles accredited by the region. Thursday, November 7, Pablo came with two friends from the Zaragoza veterinary faculty to help. We returned as a family this last weekend, to Benetússer, this time armed with tools, masks and gloves; the smell and the risk of infection being high due to stagnant water and I prefer to pass on the rest. Among the volunteers, we met people from Castellón, Alicante, Murcia, Madrid.
“Felipe VI and Queen Letizia were exemplary in dignity, they were up to the task. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of Carlos Mazón”
The elected officials and even the king were welcomed as “assassins”. What do you think?
I believe I can speak on behalf of the Valencians when I say that the attitude of Felipe VI and Queen Letizia was exemplary of dignity; that they were up to the task. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of Carlos Mazón (president of the Valencia region, member of the Popular Party) and Pedro Sanchez (head of government, Spanish Socialist Workers' Party) who blame each other for their inaction from the start.
The first named was late in giving the alert (around 8 p.m., it was already too late), especially since he was warned in the morning by the meteorological agency; the second did not send the necessary help in the following days, claiming that he had not been asked for it. Personally, we did not go to the demonstration last Saturday, organized by the left-far left opposition and the unions, to call for the resignation of Carlos Mazón – who will be held to account, the opposite would be unacceptable –, nor will we go to this weekend's event organized by the far right to demand the head of Pedro Sanchez. We prefer to arm ourselves with shovels and buckets and we feel more at home than with a sign in our hands.
What do you think went wrong?
The entire decision-making chain did not work, and which continues to malfunction. Here we reach the limit of Spanish institutions which remain, we tend to forget, a young democracy. The sharing of powers and decentralization, when the respective administrations are from different political sides, there is no better way to score an own goal or, to imagine a sport that is more familiar to me, to play the saloon doors on a rugby field. Beyond this factual observation between the government of Valencia, on the right, and the government of Pedro Sanchez, on the left, it is decades of urban policy, where concrete has invaded the Costa Blanca, which must be singled out if we want to learn something from this drama. It is not the rain in Valencia which is responsible for the floods, but the phenomenon of “gota fria” (global warming and Mediterranean climate) and the runoff of water to Valencia which led to the formation of this torrent of mud . As Cop29 begins in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, the re-election of a climate skeptic as head of the United States is the worst possible signal.
“I think it’s going to take a good month to clear things out and find some semblance of life in the inner suburbs.”
How do you see the future of these neighborhoods?
I think it's going to take a good month to clear things out and find some semblance of life in the inner suburbs. For those who lost everything (house, job, store, cars) it will take years. We are talking about more than 120,000 scrapped vehicles. When we know the time it takes to order a new vehicle, I can't imagine the time it will take to renew the city's vehicle fleet. Not to mention second-hand prices which will soar in the coming months. It is necessary to rebuild the railways (trains and metros), the main roads which serve Valencia, the bridges, the schools… The project is immense. But Spain has resources and it is not out of habit here to give up or give up. When we see the energy that young people put into cleaning everything, “hay futuro” as they say here.
*“Ground zero” is the zero point where a disaster occurs. This is in reference to the place in New York where the Twin Towers once stood.
