Ten days after the start of the catastrophic floods which affected the Valencia region, in eastern Spain, the official report from the authorities on Friday recorded 220 deaths. A number that is surprising, especially among the emergency services. “We have more than a thousand,” a Valencian paramedic told the Belga agency.
“We were threatened with dismissal”
This Samu paramedic, aged 31, spoke on condition of anonymity. “The Spanish government has imposed restrictions. We were threatened with dismissal if we spoke in the media without prior authorization from our department,” he says in a tired voice.
The 30-year-old started duty on Thursday October 31 at 9:00 a.m. for a 24-hour shift. Tuesday evening, the rain had started to pour down, relentless. According to the National Meteorological Agency (Aemet), more than 300 liters of water per square meter fell during the night from Tuesday to Wednesday on several towns and localities in the Valencia region, with a peak of 491 liters/ m2 in the small village of Chiva. That’s the equivalent of a year’s worth of precipitation.
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“We didn’t really start realizing it until Thursday. The zones were calling for all their reinforcements.” In 12 years in the profession, this paramedic “has never experienced anything like this”. “The deployed soldiers told us that the devastated areas really looked like a battlefield.”
“We number more than a thousand”
According to the government count, 220 people died because of the “dana”, an isolated high-altitude depression that causes sudden and extremely violent rains, sometimes (and this is the case this year) for several days. The latest death was recorded on Friday after the discovery of the body of a missing woman in Pedralba, a town located northwest of the provincial capital. The authorities also identified 40 unidentified bodies and 78 missing.
“We have counted more than a thousand” deaths, notes the ambulance driver, who does not know how to explain this difference. “There are still people to be rescued who live with their husband or wife who has died next to them for days,” he emphasizes, while certain municipalities remain difficult to access. “When the survivors see us arriving, it’s as if they suddenly come back to life,” adds the man who lost, in the floods, a friend and a colleague who had just retired barely a year ago.
He does not want to accuse anyone, while anger is brewing at the lack of responsiveness of the regional governments of the conservative Carlos Mazón and the federal governments of the socialist Pedro Sánchez. “But we must restore dignity to the deceased,” insists the paramedic. “We talk about corpses but, in reality, they are people. Babies, children, elderly people… Everyone had something planned for the next day.”
After two full shifts, the paramedic took 12 hours on Saturday to take a breather. “What I need to sleep, eat and clean my uniform.”
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A commissioned study
And digest the horror? “It’s a complex feeling,” he replies after a moment of reflection. “I feel bad. I can’t say that I feel good…” The caregiver admits that he can only fall asleep with the lights on. Psychologists offered their help, on a voluntary basis. “But the psychological part will come later. For the moment, we don’t have time to stop on that,” sweeps away the one who works in trio, with a doctor and a nurse, in his Samu vehicle.
The Spanish Ministry of Health has commissioned a study to quantify the mental health needs of the population, which it considers “very high”. The traces in the wake of the floods, in particular post-traumatic stress, sleep disorders and depression, will last for at least three years, he has already warned.
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