The night from Tuesday 29 to Wednesday 30 October 2024 will become a dark date that all Valencians will remember. A series of storms devastated the interior of Valence causing the violent overflow of different rivers following a historic storm which has already left at least 51 dead and dozens missing. While everything was happening, dozens of workers remained locked in their businesses without the ability to leave and return home in what they describe as a “terrifying” experience.
“It was a horrible night,” Leyre told ABC. This employee of a store located in the commercial area of Massanassa (Valencia) spent the night with the rest of her colleagues with the water up to the waistwithout the possibility of returning home and with serious difficulties in being able to contact his parents by telephone or WhatsApp.
“Cars and containers were floating on the water, there was no way out. I had a good scare because it was meant to kill us», says the young woman whose car, parked in front of the establishment, was completely destroyed by the passage of the waterspout. “Everyone is the same,” he reiterates.
At dawn in Valencia, the woman concerned and the rest of her colleagues were able to leave the store and were able to see with their own eyes the abyss in which the commercial environment finds itself. “At 9am they told us we could leave because they can’t get out and we have to go to neighboring houses”, he explains to this newspaper, since he does not have the possibility of returning to his apartment because he is in the city of Valencia, whose entrances and exits are blocked.
An experience also shared by employees of nearby stores, such as Ikea, as well as other shopping centers like Bonairein Aldaia, who saw different shelves with clothes, furniture and all kinds of objects dragged by the incessant passage of water flowing in a river of water. Also in the town of Ribarroja del Turia, where workers remained confined overnight in industrial warehouses due to the inability to return home.
Welcomed to Valencia
In Valencia, the City Council has allowed the opening of two places so that the homeless can be accommodated normally – the Santa Cruz de Tenerife shelter with 25 places and Benimaclet with around 50 places – and, at the same time, two establishments have been open, the Centro de La Petxina and L’Alqueria del Basket, intended to accommodate people in need of care, were rescued or unable to return to their homes.
“We have four active facilities and we continue to have them in the city,” highlighted the mayor of Valencia, María José Catalá, who explained that at present there are around 150 people left in La Petxina and around 130 in L’Alquéria.
