Paiporta / ValenciaIn the story of these witnesses there is suffering and anguish. Interrupted phone calls and many, many nerves. Even layoffs for fear of not seeing loved ones again. There are tears of emotion and joy. Desire to take hold of life. Desires to move forward and the pain of not knowing how. They win, however, the hugs of the reunion. The need to thank the help of volunteers and the sadness of missing that of the administration. And, finally, there is the request for help to be able to recover a life that they describe as “lost”.
To learn about the odyssey of Susana Cabanillas and Enrique García you have to get dirty and cross the Valencian town of Paiporta, the most affected by the worst storm of the century in the State. The municipality is still overflowing, full of water and mud. However, a novelty stands out, the much-requested military vehicles, heavy machinery that is difficult to understand how it took so many days to appear.
We talk to them in Carrer Sant Ramón, a humble place dominated by official protection housing. While we chat, the other neighbors keep cleaning their floors and the noise is constant. They unload with baskets. So many, that in front of the buildings grows a wall of waste about two meters. They are the memories and accumulated goods of a lifetime. What remains are completely empty houses where nothing could be saved, not even a chair.
The epic of Enrique and his friend and partner Luís Agra (Susan’s partner) began on October 29 at 7 pm when they left Valencia by car to return home from their work as workers. Little did they suspect that a wave of water and mud would block their way, forcing them to turn around and descend a bridge they had just climbed. “It was a mistake. The water started coming and we got stuck. We were a bunch of cars. A girl in front said she was going to pull over, but more water came and her car started floating and giving turns. The lights went out, the vehicle sank and it disappeared. It was very hard to see,” recalls Enrique.
“We had to get out of the van through the windows. Then the current came up and swept us away. We were holding on to the trunk of the vehicle. Suddenly, the van stopped in a field. We still don’t know why. We we climbed onto the roof and stayed there motionless. We saw trucks passing by and people screaming inside the cars… We spent four eternal hours like that,” he recounts.
The fear was so great that Luís said goodbye to Susana by phone. Before, however, he asked for help. “He told me to ask for help, that they couldn’t get out of there,” she recounts through tears.
Two days of uncertainty
When the water level had dropped, Luís and Enrique had saved their lives, but they were “dead from the cold”. Then, and with the water up to their knees, they walked towards the road until they reached a place where there was a team from the Military Emergency Unit. Later, the police took them to a petrol station in Valencia where they were given water, food, clothes and money. Then a Cabify driver took them to a sports center equipped to accommodate those affected by the storm.
Enrique explains that the chaos was so great that he couldn’t call his family to say he was okay until the next day. Separated and with two daughters aged fifteen and twelve who live in Albacete, he remembers how “all night long” he only thought about them. “I thought I wouldn’t see them again,” he says excitedly. A sadness that still lasts and prevents him from sleeping. Also, when he does, he has nightmares. “Seeing a person die in front of you is very hard. We saw things floating that we don’t know if they were corpses,” he remembers.
In Susana’s case, the water surprised her at home. “In half an hour it went from being around my ankle to reaching my chest,” he explains. She was trapped and was only able to get out of the basement where she lives thanks to the help of a neighbor. “A big, strong African boy,” he explains. In the streets of Paiporta, the situation was dramatic. “There were people who got carried away by the current and who held on to lampposts. Neighbors threw sheets so we could hold on. Four people died in this street trapped in cars,” he laments.
The worst thing, for her, was the uncertainty. An anguish that lasted two “eternal” days. The next day, since he didn’t know anything about Luís and Enrique, he walked several kilometers to report their disappearance. He didn’t know they were alive until that Thursday. Since Luís couldn’t remember her phone number and the communications were cut off, he couldn’t tell her. “It was desperate,” she recalls through tears.
Before we say goodbye, we ask them what they need now, and Enrique answers that, quite simply, help. “Money for people who have lost everything so they can rebuild their lives” and psychological support. “I’m screwed, I need it,” he concludes.
Live the suffering by phone 150 km away
Working 150 kilometers from where the husband and the daughter of only two years live is not a dish of good taste. He misses his family and can’t get his head around one place or the other. You learn to live with constant restlessness, not to stop staring at your phone. This sadness becomes unbearable when the family is trapped by historical floods like those in the Valencian Country. A restlessness that can only calm the family reunion.
When on Tuesday, October 29, Manolo Larios received a call from his wife Lorena García from Vinarós saying to take the car out of the garage because a lot of water was coming down the Poio ravine – located just over a hundred meters from the family residence -, he didn’t believe her because it wasn’t raining in Picanya. He thought she was “overdoing it” and continued to play with little Irene. Her insistence, minutes later, and the realization that the rest of the neighbors were removing their vehicles, made him realize that something was really going on.
He took the little girl and took the car out. “I could only get to the corner because there was a sheet of water. I turned around and left the car on the pavement,” he remembers. The situation worsened when he tried to get out of the vehicle. The water prevented him from opening the door. “Right then I called him and he told me how they were. He told me he didn’t know what was going to happen. You can imagine how I felt,” says Lorena, still distressed. Finally, Manolo managed to get out of the car window. First him, then the daughter.
He agreed that he did not have time to return to his building and, seeing a woman trying to enter an annexe, approached her. They needed the help of three other neighbors to break the lock on the door that would not open due to the water pressure. They were already saved. Manolo was welcomed by another neighbor and called Lorena. Then he walked across the roof that connects three buildings until he got to his house where he spent the whole night drawing water.
Meanwhile, Lorena from Vinaròs, the municipality where she works as a teacher, still couldn’t breathe a sigh of relief. Now it was his turn to suffer for his father, brother, uncle and cousin who had also gone out to get the car out of the garage. Added to the concern was the situation of his 93-year-old grandfather, who lives alone, and an aunt who had to sleep in a pavilion. “It was all very distressing,” he explains between sighs. “I didn’t know that my father and brother were okay until half past twelve at night,” he emphasizes.
Hug them three days later
Lorena’s suffering did not end until Friday, when she was able to hug her family. Cuts to almost all connections in the area prevented him. To survive this wait, he counted on the support of his colleagues and the warmth of his students who, despite his eight years, noticed his concern. “They drew a really big heart on the board with the phrase don’t be sad We love you a lot‘, he remembers.
The definitive family reunion took place in the house that Manolo’s parents have in Valencia where the family is being accommodated until they can return to their home, which is now half dirty, with traces of mud and no water or gas. They recognize that they have lost “everything”. From the furniture, to the most important memories, including Lorena’s childhood photos or Irene’s first stuffed animal. “I have the feeling that a part of my life has gone,” laments Lorena. “I miss my home,” adds Manolo.
Regarding the management of the notices by the Generalitat, they point out that the alarm message on the mobile phone arrived very late. “Me, when I was already in the attic of the neighbor who took us in,” complains Manolo. Instead, they appreciate the help received from the volunteers who have brought them everything, and who have offered to clean their house. For the future, they demand advice, clear information and speed. “We don’t know where to start and we need the help now,” warns Manolo.
However, they are willing to go ahead and pass another test. It is not the first, as Lorena has also overcome cancer. Both explain that they have learned to value the simplest thing, what they have every day, the love of their daughter. Before saying goodbye, they show us a hundred photos that are drying in an open gallery of the house. They are the memories of a lifetime that DANA has not managed to truncate.
