Volunteers who come to Algemesí to clean up this Valencian town hit by DANA are welcome in the workshop of the Tortosa brothers, Paco and Ernesto. Here they repair all the breakdowns and punctures they have free of charge: from police officers, civil guards or health workers from other regions to foreign citizens who put their hands to work to move this municipality of 30,000 inhabitants forward .
This is what the staff of a Samur ambulance in Madrid know, for example, who were there this Tuesday to have a puncture repaired.. Or the tractor driver who lives two and a half hours away and whose gearbox broke down. Or the kid who arrived with his tow truck with flat tires. Or the three young girls who also punctured two tires of their van loaded with tools and food for the victims.
“To the volunteers and relief workers who come from outside to help us, We haven’t charged anyone a cent and we won’t charge either“, says Ernesto. “How are we going to get them back if they help us!” What’s less! Without them, we would still be lost here,” continues this experienced mechanic, who You don’t know how many punctures they fixed for free. “They wanted to pay me and I threatened them: if you pay me, I will puncture your wheels,” he jokes.
This has been the case for two weeks, the day after DANA devastated Algemesí, located next to the mouth of the Magro river in the Júcar. Fortunately, the area where the Tortosa brothers’ workshop is located escaped the disaster. “Those of us within a radius of about 500 meters were saved. Two fingers of water came in here, we cleaned up and we were able to work“, says a relieved Ernesto, who closed his business last weekend. “We were devastated,” he recalls, because he also had to clean his house, where the water and mud reached a height of one meter and thirty centimeters.
The car that a couple from Cordoba gave to their brother Moisés, who lost his because of DANA
But on Friday, he took the opportunity to go to Cordoba (900 kilometers round trip) with his little brother Moisés, who lost his car due to the floods. They went to the Andalusian town to collect a car that a couple, Ángel and Estrella, had given to Moisés for free.
“It made me cry”admits Ernesto, who tells how it happened: “I am part of a group that plays cars online and Ángel called me to ask how we were doing. I told him, among other things, that my brother had lost his car and his house had been seriously damaged.
Then Ángel offered him the car that he was going to sell for around 2,000 euros. “We’ll give it to you,” he and Estrella insisted, and they also treated them to seafood paella when the brothers picked up the car. “The paella was good,” agrees Ernesto, who prepares very good paellas for his friends in his workshop. “There are good people in this life”says the mechanic from Estrella and Ángel who will be eternally grateful to the volunteers.
