According to the Superior Court of Justice of the Valencia region, 93 people have been missing since the floods which devastated the south-east of Spain eight days ago. In addition to the authorities and emergency services, volunteers are mobilizing.
The torrential rains that fell on the south-east of Spain, equivalent in places to a year of precipitation, left, according to a still provisional toll, 219 deaths. 93 people are also still missing, more than a week after the floods.
In Torrent, every day at 10 a.m., volunteers meet to start the search. In this town in the suburbs of Valencia, residents are still without news of Ruben, 3 years old, and his brother Izan, 5 years old, who disappeared on October 29, swept away by the waves.
Carried away by the force of the waters
Sara came from Barcelona to help with the research. “I came with my dog, he has been trained for three years for this type of research. I have with me clothes from Izan and Ruben with their smell,” she explains to BFMTV.
These search operations are carried out by rescue forces, particularly military, but above all by volunteers, sometimes close to the family but also strangers from other communities in the country.
The search to find Izan and Ruben is concentrated in the residential area, completely ravaged by floods, where they disappeared. The two children had spent the day at their grandmother's house. Informed of the bad weather that was coming, their father had left work early to pick them up.
The father and his two boys were in their house in Torrent when the heavy rains began to fall. According to the account given by the aunt of the two boys to RTVE, the power was quickly cut off in the house. The father sat in the living room to reassure his children. The force of the water ended up bringing down a wall of the house, before the water destroyed everything in a matter of seconds.
The father tried to save his sons but the current was too strong. He managed to cling to a tree about 200 meters from his home and remained there for five hours.
Difficult terrain for research
When the water began to calm down, despite his injuries, he went looking for Ruben and Izan, helped by a handful of local residents. They then discover a landscape of desolation, with a town disfigured by floods and mud and debris all over the streets.
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The family then launched an appeal on the networks, broadcasting a photo of the two boys. Every day since then, volunteers have surveyed the ruins of Torrent. They inspect damaged vehicles in particular, marking each inspected car with an R in red paint, which means that no body has been found there. Conversely, volunteers mark with a cross where a victim is found.
Domingo López, member of civil protection, explained to EFE that the work they are doing is “very complicated”, because the area “contains a lot of rubble, furniture and objects of all kinds”, the current having carried away entire houses.
Mud and sediment further complicate the work, and he explains that the two children “could be buried under two meters.” The current may also have carried them hundreds of meters from their home.
Disinformation
“Izan and Rubén are two very smiling children. We are not losing hope because it is the last thing that is lost. I hope that someone was able to find them,” their aunt said on RTVE.
At the same time as the drama, Izan and Ruben's family must deal with misinformation on social networks.
The SOS Desaparecidos association, which shared their wanted notice at the national level, warned against the dissemination of a photo of a child that Internet users present as little Ruben. However, it is about a young Mexican boy at a completely different event.
According to the Spanish authorities, disinformation has increased since last week and is complicating the work of emergency services while creating confusion among the population, particularly among those affected.
Salomé Robles with Milan Argelas
