“We had already saved a woman with her two babies, a man locked in his car. And that's when the civil protection alarms sounded? It was too late for those who were already dead “said Tchelo, a resident of Paiporta, a suburb southeast of Valencia which has the most victims.
They have been walking on the side of the expressway for more than an hour with a bag on their back. Their clothes are partly covered in mud. Tchelo and Jose Enrique try to reach the city center of Valencia (Spain) to take refuge with relatives. Their pavilion in Paiporta is inaccessible. “There are seven vehicles on top of each other blocking the entrance. This morning, a crane is removing the cars. But we won't return to the house for 2 or 3 days.” explains the father of three.
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“It was too late for those who were already dead!”
This family is one of the victims of Paiporta (Spain), in the southern outskirts of Valencia, which became the epicenter of the disaster. In this town of 25,000 inhabitants, more than 50 people died. And the toll is likely to rise as soldiers from the army emergency unit were still trying yesterday to find the bodies of victims using sniffer dogs. “They still haven't managed to get into the retirement home. It's horrible,” testifies Tchelo, with tears in his eyes after 48 hours without or almost no sleep.
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The emotion is palpable, the anger too. “We received the alert messages on our cell phone Tuesday evening when we already had water everywhere. We had already saved a woman with her two babies, a man locked in his car. And that's when- there the civil protection alarms sounded?? But it was too late. It was too late for those who were already dead!
“It was when they returned home at the end of the day that they were trapped in their vehicle”
Did the regional authorities react too late? This is the opinion shared by many disaster victims. “I am angry with the president of our region: he minimized the warnings from the weather agency,” explains Santiago, a young retiree whose ground floor of the house is completely flooded. “People should never have gone to work on Tuesday. It was often when they returned home at the end of the day that they were trapped in their vehicle” deplores Maria, another resident of Paiporta.
Warnings taken lightly?
The Spanish weather services had sent several messages on social networks as of Tuesday morning. But for the victims, the regional government of Valencia, led by the right-wing Popular Party, took these warnings lightly.
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Without electricity and water, Paiporta was still isolated yesterday. Only emergency vehicles and firefighters were able to enter the city. The floods left a landscape of apocalypse with hundreds of vehicles rammed against each other, mud everywhere, walls torn away and houses gutted.
“Everything is destroyed. It’s crazy”
“The ground floor and garage are completely flooded”explains Maria, at the door of her house. “We are in shock. We are trying to remove the mud. We have cleared the sidewalk to be able to get through. But we have no water, no electricity. We can't call anyone because the phones don't work.”
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All day, hundreds of residents walked to Paiporta equipped with food, brooms and buckets, to come and help. “I have come to help my brother. His house is flooded. But thank God, he is alive. Not everyone has been so lucky”says Santiago, a shovel in his hand. “Everything is destroyed. It's crazy. I can see it before my eyes and I don’t believe it.”
The effects of the storm compared to those of an earthquake
Everyone was overwhelmed by the violence of the storm, the effects of which are compared in Spain to those of an earthquake. “But the authorities should have done more”regrets José Enrique. “No one came to see us. No one said anything to us, or came to bring us food or a package! We’ve been trying to survive for two days”
A provisional toll of 158 dead and several dozen missing
For several days, the Valencia region has been affected by deadly floods. While the provisional toll has increased to 158 deaths, declared this Thursday, October 31, the Minister of Territorial Policy, Ángel Víctor Torres, during a press conference.
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