— Do you need to talk?
After passing through a door still full of mud, three Red Cross volunteers knock on the door of Antonio, a man of almost eighty years who has not left his house in Paiporta since the storm devastated everything. the city.
— I’m fine, my daughter came from Madrid and fortunately I have a little more company now.
House by house, door by door, a group of psychologists, social workers and volunteers of this entity visited on Thursday the most damaged areas of Paiporta, one of the municipalities of the so-called “zero zone” of DANA which remains devastated nine days later. of the flood
They bring food and medicine to neighbors who still do not dare leave their homes. And they also offer psychological help to those who have lost everything and cannot see a future when the mud is gone from the streets. According to the first provisional count, 62 residents died in Paiporta.
They brought Antonio his medicine, fruit and other food so that he could survive until he dared to go out into the streets again. He thanks them and asks them how the situation is there. They say he’s not ready to leave yet. “Wait a few more days,” they ask.
A good part of the streets of Paiporta (27,000 inhabitants) remain uncovered. On some roads there are still two areas of water and mud. The narrowest ones remain impassable and mountains of garbage and unusable furniture pile up on the sidewalks to the point that some streets are no longer even passable.
The smell of garbage, humidity and mud make it difficult to breathe without a mask in some areas. There are still many basements soaked with mud and the streets are saturated with volunteers, firefighters, police, soldiers and hundreds of vehicles from the army, the EMU and different organizations and security forces of the state.
“The first days, people were completely shocked, busy cleaning up and locating their families,” says Patricia Martínez, a 33-year-old social worker who is taking part in the Red Cross operation. “Since yesterday we have started to notice that some affected people admit that they need psychological attention.”
In colloquial terms, Martínez and the psychologist with whom he is partner, Rocío Antón, point out that the population of Paiporta begins to “go down” after a few days in which, so overwhelmed, they could not even stop. and think about everything that happened. “Now comes the return to reality,” they warn.
The main pathology detected in the population is anxiety. Severe insomnia and nightmares are also being reported among residents who have seen the streets flooded with water up to two meters high.
“Those who survived think above all about what could have happened to them,” explains Antón, the psychologist, as she walks the streets of a municipality that looks like a war zone.
3,000 people deployed
Since last Wednesday, the Red Cross alone has deployed more than 3,000 people on the ground to help the victims of DANA. There are approximately 300 teams which, according to entity data, have provided 78,000 relief items and distributed almost 100,000 meals to the population and organizations deployed in the area.
Among those who have come to work these days is Paco Túnez, an employee of the Tax Agency of Tarragona who, for more than 35 years, has combined his profession with voluntary work that has led him to disasters in the whole world.
“I have witnessed two tsunamis in the Philippines and the situation here is very similar,” he said as he drove an emergency vehicle through the crowded streets of Paiporta. “The pain is still the same, but there are parts of the world that are a little more used to experiencing situations like this. »
Since Monday, Tunisia has been roaming the streets of the populations most affected by DANA carrying out first aid and psychosocial care tasks. Part of his work, he explains, has focused on people who are alone and have no one to help them.
“There are a lot of people who need to talk, to feel that someone cares about them,” he says. “You’re not going to relieve their pain, but you can try to help them regain control of the situation. »
Tunez walks alongside other volunteers, like Noelia Valls or Manuel Bravo, who arrived from Alcoi. They have all been in complex situations for years, from the cholera epidemic in Haiti to the fire in Valencia last February. Everyone agrees on the scale of the tragedy of October 29.
“This is a huge, unfathomable emergency,” says Bravo. “It is not concentrated in one place but the misfortune is immense and widespread.”
Red Cross personnel do more than just distribute food and medicine or offer psychological assistance. When they arrive at a place where hands are lacking, they are the first to stop what they are doing to grab brooms and remove the mud.
Patricia and Rocío, the two professionals who provide psychological care at home, arrive around three in the afternoon at the home of Loli, a woman who narrowly escaped the floods and whose house was seriously affected.
When they arrived, they found that their house was flooded again. They both roll up their sleeves, grab two brooms, and start trying to get all the water out of their house.
After almost an hour with the brooms, the floor is not very presentable again. Finally, they manage to chat for a while with Loli, to find out how she is. Loli says that there are times when she can’t stop crying, but it also comforts her to see how people are trying to help each other and to know that deep down they have been saved.
— Is there anything else we can do for you? — they ask him before leaving his house.
— No, calm down. I know I have your phone number and that gives me great peace of mind.
The two workers kiss Loli and leave to continue serving the other residents of Paiporta.
