In the 3,000 square meters occupied by the Higiman warehouses in Picaña, there are boxes of gloves for hospitals as well as packets of toilet paper rolls and bottles of hydroalcoholic gel. The same boxes of masks that provided almost the entire Valencian Community during the pandemic and which are now so necessary in the areas affected by DANA, accumulate at the street doors with bottles of detergents, bleach and disposable products, among other products, that Higiman – which closed last year with a profit of 11 million euros – will not be able to sell to its customers. This chemical company is located in Alquería de Moret, an industrial zone that has 70 companies where no machines have arrived to clean the streets. The flood displaced the Diavida company ambulances, stuck in the mud at an intersection in the industrial zone. Vans from the Valin food company are also present. In addition to their warehouse, others suffered damage, such as that of Jamones de Aragon or Vendival.Related news Standard No The first official data places the number of people missing by DANA in Valencia at 89, although there are has 62 unidentified bodies Alberto Caparrós Forensic experts have already carried out the autopsy of 195 bodies, of which 62 remain to be identified. The x-ray of this scenario extends over the twelve streets of Alquería de Moret, where traders try to help each other move forward. They also feel abandoned. Without help, even if it involves cleaning the streets, they will not be able to resume their activity because no transport company will be able to enter the industrial zone to supply them with goods. “We have to start elsewhere until we can come back,” María Álvarez, responsible for the administrative and financial sector of the company, explains to ABC. She and her brother Rafael, commercial director of Higiman, are working tirelessly to ensure that the company founded by Rafael Álvarez García-Casarrubio, her father, resumes its activity as quickly as possible. They haven’t been billed for five days and have 30 paychecks to pay at the end of the month. Three of their employees are from Picaña and lost their homes: “They can’t be unemployed now either,” says María. Thanks to a friend, the two brothers managed to rent other warehouses nearby. , in Picasent, where they hope to begin work early next week. They will stay there until Alquería de Moret is supplied again, the streets are clean and their trucks and vans can circulate normally, which they do not expect for at least three months. Helping businesses is not a priority: “They appear. in sixth place. “No one is coming to help us businesses.” María Álvarez Although Higiman has financial resources and can afford it, he has encountered logistical difficulties in being able to temporarily raise the blinds elsewhere. “Now we are faced with another problem: although the industrial zone where we are going is perfect, the transport companies say that they will not go there because the postal code seems to them to be affected by DANA”, explains Rafael . And he adds: “Everything is easy.” To solve this problem, they turned to truck drivers who are not part of large transport companies. “A lot of volunteers come through here, but none of them stop to help. I understand that people are more important and that many people suffer, but at least they clean the streets,” says María, while adding that helping businesses is not a priority: “They are in sixth position. No one is coming to help us businesses. It was last Sunday that Rafael managed to enter the offices of the family business for the first time. With ten friends coming to help, they began clearing the mud from outside to access the 14 meter high warehouses. Inside, the water had reached three meters and was mixed with fecal water. Thanks to another friend he managed to rent a tractor with which they managed to clean one of the warehouses, using the water that flows into a ditch next to the industrial area. They also faced another problem: “The cranes do not work to lower the goods that have not been damaged.” Without cleaning the streets, they cannot repair them or build new ones. “We need help” A few kilometers from here, in Sedaví, the army yesterday helped several industrial warehouses for which the forces of volunteers, family and friends were not even sufficient to begin to assess the damage. They needed heavy machinery to access businesses and begin cleanup work. One such company is Soncol, which sells mattresses. On his wall one could read, written in clay: “We need help”. “Our business is a family business, it is run by my father, my sister, a colleague and me. Until yesterday we were helping my friend with his house, which is destroyed, and today we came here. We hoped we could save something, but there is nothing left,” said José, one of the owners, as soldiers helped them remove soaked mattresses from a warehouse where water had even made holes in the mattresses. walls. “The store still works because we have it in Valencia, but we have nothing to sell. No need to distribute, because the van was there and it broke. Everything is destroyed. And we lost equipment, which in the end is just that, but the people who could have been saved if these guys had been there the first or second day…” he laments. “Now we can’t do anything. “Just do it again.” »
