Paiporta“That’s Chernobyl, better turn around,” warns a man from Benetússer. A resident of the same municipality adds: “He’s right, don’t go there, it’s all destroyed.” The little more than three kilometers of the CV-400 road that separates the Sant Marcel·lí neighborhood of Valencia from the municipalities of Paiporta and Picanya have become 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 towns of the Horta Sud region, the heart of the devastation caused by the worst storm of the century in the State.
Their clothes, completely splashed with mud, their faces, exhausted, show that they come from a Dantesque scenario. There are teenagers, adults, old people… Also parents loaded with suitcases and with their children in their arms. “We’re leaving because we can’t stay there. There’s no water or 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 cane accompanies him on the way. A tool that will become an element shared by many affected: the millions of reeds dragged down the Poio ravine converted into something useful. Another common denominator of the day will be improvised clothing such as dung bags cut from waterproof ankle warmers. They will only lack a hat to protect them from a single inclement weather. After the raging storm, the Mediterranean heat returns.
“You’re going to encounter a lot of awkward scenes,” warns Rafa. His predictions come true and the first taste of disaster arrives: hundreds of cars, thousands in the whole region, overturned on the road. Many have their windows rolled down as a reminder of where their drivers had to escape.
Paiporta approaches and the mud increases. The slap of shoes when stepping becomes a constant sound. The soundtrack to dirt and mess. The sordid melody is replaced by the hum of the water still coming down hard. The scene is terrifying. The ravine has taken everything away: the sidewalks, the walls of the basements, half of the bridge…
José Manuel Albert removes mud with a shovel from a storage room located on Carrer de Catarroja. More than thirty centimeters of water and mud accumulate there. At the end of the street a dozen cars are piled up as they were left by the flood. “I live in a house next to the ravine. The water stayed a meter away. My son went down to the garage to look at the car when the water was already taking the vehicle away. Still lucky he didn’t try to nothing,” he recalls.
Many residents admit that they wander the streets because they don’t know what to do. This is not the case with Vicente. He looks for an electric light connection to charge his cell phone and find out if his 21-year-old son Iván is okay. “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 has rained the most. He took shelter in the upper part of the factory where he works, but I have not heard from him since yesterday at 7 p.m.,” he explains while his eyes moisten.
Noelia is also very nervous. Her seventy-year-old mother-in-law is one of the missing people. Her husband, 74 years old, left the house to protect the car and when he returned he could not find her. “We don’t know where it is. The only place they haven’t searched is the garage, but it’s full of water.” We ask him how he stays calm and he explains that he can’t afford anything else. “My father-in-law suffered a heart attack a month ago, in these circumstances you can only resist, then we’ll see,” he concludes.
Desperation in supermarkets
From the neighboring town of Picanya is Esther Albert, who lives a hundred meters from a footbridge that was swept away by the water. He says that a 28-year-old man has died in the street next door. He lived in a building next to the ravine. He went to get the car out of the garage and never came back. “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 drive around either. The “administration should have been firmer and informed us better,” he emphasizes.
At the beginning of the journey, Rafa had given a very strong warning: “People have entered the supermarkets to steal. They take everything, even the carts.” Again, the prediction comes true. In an industrial estate dozens of people leave a supermarket with trolleys full to the top. They bring food but also detergents, bleach, alcohol… Even a young couple steals plastic Halloween pumpkins. People pick up the items in a hurry, nervously. The establishment is open from top to bottom. There is anger, but the National Police and the Civil Guard do not 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”, justifies a woman. “People are taking things in baskets,” laments another who, however, is also carrying a bag.
At the exit from 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 is less hot, but the road is especially long for Jaime and Amparo, two neighbors of Benetússer aged 83 and 82 who are leaving their home behind. Three walls have fallen, they have no beds, water or electricity and they feared they wouldn’t be able to get out because the door was swelling and getting more and more stuck. “Emergencies have 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 pass on the road, no help. Not a Local Police car carrying some detainees, not a taxi waiting for the family. Neither do two other cars stop. On the fifth occasion they have better luck and an all-terrain vehicle stops with two young people.
Crossing a still raging Túria river, we return to Valencia. A stream of people coming in and out. Some have gone to buy water and food and are now returning to the villages. Others abandon them. “This looks like an exodus,” says a man to his companion.
