It’s been less than 24 hours, but what we are witnessing today is a “devastating” and “heartbreaking” scenario, as the damage caused by the DANA in the Valencian Community They are innumerable and, above all, they have conquered a vast area of territory. This is explained by Cristina Zaballos, who is the coordinator of the Forward Command Post for the operation of the Civil Protection and Emergencies Agency of the Junta de Castilla y León which already works in the city of Aldaia, with tasks focused on the evacuation of water accumulated in premises, garages and street cleaning. She knows what she is talking about because she has more than 15 years of experience within the Agency and assures that this is without a doubt the biggest natural disaster she has faced, even bigger than the fires of 2022 which devastated the Community.
The operation came with force as the nearly 200 soldiers moved by the Councilmainly firefighters and environmental personnel, are aware of everything that remains to be done in the cities most affected by DANA and their neighbors. Thus, the rain which began to fall this afternoon did not prevent drainage work or the evacuation of vehicles piled up in a tunnel in the town. The tasks of cleaning up and removing cars piled up on the streets are costly but essential so that heavy machinery such as backhoes and backhoe loaders can get in and do their job, Ical reports.
For now, they are focused on this and don’t want to think about what will happen next because Zaballos emphasizes that this is work that will last. several days because there is a lot of water accumulated in the basements and garages of residential, commercial and business buildings. “You have to shrink down to see what’s underneath,” he says.
The convoy of the Junta arrived last night in Valencia, after the National Emergency Center (CENEM) yesterday activated the Junta to send some means it needed in the Valencian Community, but many firefighters from the Valencian Community were working already here. municipal councils and provincial councils who moved in the days following the floods. Despite the existence of the functioning of the Agency Civil Protection and Emergencies of Castilla y LeónResponsible for organizing all Community resources, these emergency personnel continue their work wherever they have been assigned, even though the Command Post has constant contact with these agencies and is aware of their needs.
The convoy, composed of heavy and large vehicles with more than 12,000 kilos of goods arrived yesterday at 11 p.m. in Paiport.a, where those responsible for the Castilla y León operation had a first meeting with the post of the Consortium of Firefighters of the Valencian Community, which is the one that coordinates all the work. “In the chaos that exists, the coordination is good and the relationship is very fluid,” he says. It is not in vain that he recognizes that managing an emergency of this caliber, “so large and so extensive” is very difficult but is convinced that in the coming days, the results of all the reinforcements sent by the different administrations will be visible.
There was also time to do a quick reconnaissance of the area and take stock of the condition of what they would find in daylight. So some of them didn’t fall asleep until 3 a.m.
After spending the first night in a school in Paiporta, today they are settled in the sports center of another school in Aldaia, where they have showers, toilets and adequate space to rest and rework strength for what awaits them in the coming days. admit that Cities hardest hit by DANA will have to wait weeks and months to return to normalwithout thinking about the communication routes or works of art which have been damaged and which will take even more time. At the moment there is no question of the duration of the operation in Valencia, because everything will depend on needs.
To Bonaire
For their part, the firefighters mobilized in different parks in the Community were distributed in different enclaves, such as Bonaire Shopping Center This keeps the country on edge because of the uncertainty surrounding this flooded parking lot.
The media of the Provincial Delegation of Valladolid focused today on the overhaul of the mechanical ramps and elevators of the shopping center, located in Aldaia, in collaboration with members of the Military Emergency Unit (UME). Also members of the Provincial Council of Salamanca They worked today on draining the water and checking the stairwells, elevator shafts and emergency exits. “In recent hours, the water level has dropped to one and a half meters, which is good news for being able to carry out an initial inspection of the parking lot,” they explain.
