2024-10-30 22:27:00
Paiporta“That’s Chernobyl, better look back,” warns a man from Benetússer. A resident of the same municipality adds: “You’re right, don’t go there, it’s all destroyed.” The just over three kilometers of the CV-400 road that separates the Sant Marcel·lí neighborhood of Valencia from the municipalities of Paiporta and Picanya became a real escape route this Wednesday. It is the escape route for thousands of people who have crossed it to leave behind the catastrophe suffered in the Valencian municipalities of the Horta Sud region, the heart of the devastation caused by the worst storm of the century in the state.
Their clothes, completely splattered with mud, their faces, exhausted, demonstrate that they come from a Dantesque scenario. There are teenagers, adults, elderly… Even parents loaded with suitcases and with children in their arms. “We leave because we can’t stay there. There is no water, no electricity, no internet, and you won’t find any shops open,” explains José Manuel, a pre-retiree who was staying at his brother’s house in Catarroja. . A stick accompanies him on his journey. A tool that will become an element shared by many affected: the millions of reeds dragged into the Poio ravine have been transformed into something useful. Another common denominator of the day will be improvised clothing, such as manure bags made from waterproof ankle warmers. They will only need a hat to protect them from a single inclement weather. After the furious storm, the Mediterranean heat returns.
“You will encounter many embarrassing scenes,” warns Rafa. His predictions come true and the first taste of disaster arrives: hundreds of cars, thousands throughout the region, overturned on the road. Many have their windows rolled down as a reminder of where their drivers had to escape from.
Paiporta approaches and the mud increases. The click of your shoes when you take a step becomes a constant sound. The soundtrack of dirt and disorder. The sordid melody is replaced by the hum of the water still falling loudly. The scene is terrifying. The ravine took everything away: the sidewalks, the underground walls, half the bridge…
José Manuel Albert removes mud with a shovel from a warehouse located in Carrer de Catarroja. More than thirty centimeters of water and mud accumulate there. At the end of the road, a dozen cars are piled up as if left by the flood. “I live in a house near the ravine. The water was still a meter away. My son went down to the garage to look at the car when the water was already taking the vehicle away. Luckily it didn’t do anything,” remember.
Many residents admit to wandering the streets because they don’t know what to do. This is not the case with Vicente. He is looking for a connection to electricity to charge his cell phone and find out if his son Ivan, 21, is well. “Do you have a light?” he asks, calling out to all the people he finds on the balconies. “My son was in Xiva, which is the place where it rained the most. He took shelter in the upper part of the factory where he works, but I haven’t heard from him since yesterday at 7pm,” he explains as he speaks. the eyes become moist.
Noelia is also very nervous. His mother-in-law, aged seventy, is one of the missing people. Her husband, 74, left the house to protect the car and when he returned he couldn’t find it. “We don’t know where he is. The only place they didn’t search is the garage, but it’s full of water.” We ask him how he manages to stay calm and he explains that he can’t afford anything else. “My father-in-law had a heart attack a month ago, in these circumstances one can only resist, then we’ll see”, he concludes.
Despair in supermarkets
From the nearby town of Picanya is Esther Albert, who lives a hundred meters from a pedestrian bridge that was swept away by the water. He says a 28-year-old man died on the next street. He lived in a building near the ravine. He went to get his car from the garage and never returned. “It was the worst night of my life,” he admits. And he adds: “Seeing the ravine was terrifying.” “There was a red alert, but since it wasn’t raining here we lived a normal life. There were people in the gyms… It’s something that shouldn’t have been allowed. They shouldn’t have let us go around “The administration should have been more stop and inform us better”, he underlines.
At the beginning of the trip Rafa had issued a very strong warning: “People have entered the supermarkets to steal. They take everything, even the carts.” Once again the prediction comes true. In an industrial area, dozens of people leave a supermarket with trolleys full to the edge. They bring food but also detergents, bleach, alcohol… A young couple also steals plastic Halloween pumpkins. People collect objects quickly, nervously. The establishment is open from top to bottom. There is anger, but the National Police and the Guardia Civil don’t stop them and let them do it. “I went in to look for water, but after checking this mess, I took a bottle of wine and some shoes for my mother, it’s just that they got wet,” explains one woman. “People carry things in baskets,” complains another who, however, also carries a bag.
Upon leaving Paiporta we find dozens of divers, the specialists in charge of searching for the missing in the thousands of garages still flooded throughout the region. Let’s go back to the CV-400. It’s less hot, but the road is particularly long for Jaime and Amparo, two Benetússer neighbors aged 83 and 82 who leave their home behind. Three walls fell down, they had no beds, no water or electricity and they feared they wouldn’t be able to get out because the door swelled and got more and more blocked. “The emergencies had been telling us for hours that they were coming, but nothing,” explains Amparo, the couple’s daughter. He criticizes the “inefficiency” of the administration. Also the lack of solidarity of the few vehicles that travel on the road, no help. Not a local police car with some prisoners on board, not a taxi waiting for the family. The other two cars don’t stop either. On the fifth occasion they have better luck and an off-road vehicle with two young people stops.
Crossing the still swollen Turia river, we return to Valencia. A flow of people coming in and out. Some went to buy water and food and are now returning to their villages. Others abandon them. “It looks like an exodus,” a man tells his companion.
#Escape #point #Dont #destroyed
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The scene in and around the supermarkets reflects a community in chaos, with fear and desperation driving people to act in ways they never thought possible. The sheer volume of loss — both material and human — looms heavily over everyone left standing in the aftermath of the flood. As the rains continue to pummel the region, the collective anxiety only grows, along with the muddy streets that now serve as reminders of the destruction caused by nature’s fury.
In a crisis like this, resources quickly dwindle. People look out for each other, sharing whatever little they can find. “We’re all in this together,” a neighbor insists, even as they sift through rubble and debris outside their homes. Yet beneath the camaraderie is a current of fear; the uncertainty of who will still be missing when the waters finally recede is a heavy burden on everyone’s mind.
The recovery efforts have only just begun, yet it will take a great deal of time and collective effort for life to resemble anything close to normal again. Heroes often emerge in times of crisis, but for now, the focus remains on missing loved ones and saving what they can from the rising tide of despair.