Most died because of DANA they focus on Païporta (45)epicenter of the fateful flood which left a total of 221 dead, according to the latest official report provided this Saturday.
In this town of L’Horta Sud in Valencia, it will be difficult to forget the worst DANA of the century. He won’t be able to erase her from his mind either. writer Santiago Posteguillowho shared a heartbreaking story about how he and his partner lived on October 29 in their apartment in Paiporta.
He did so during a conference in the Senate on the importance of Hispania. The author of the trilogy African He lives in Valencia. That fateful Tuesday, Posteguillo was in his partner’s apartment in Paiporta and went up to the terrace, where he discovered that the Poyo ravine, about 50 meters from the house, “was overflowing, it had not rained and no one had warned him.
The building where he lives with his partner, Ana Gilhis father built it, as he made clear in his speech to the Upper House. His partner is sworn Romanian translator-interpreter with dual nationality (Spanish and American) and met her on a commuter train.
This is how he describes the first moments: “As I have the car parked outside next to the metro station, I make a decision that many people have probably made. We grab my partner’s garage remote, my car keys and off we go. We go out to move the car. We go down the six floors, but there is already a whole sheet of water covering the entire place. It’s strange in such a short time.“.
Several neighbors convinced him that it was not a “Good idea” change the location of the vehicle. “I found the car four days After one kilometer from where he had parked it,” said Prix Planeta. “But that’s the least we can do,” he said.
Video | The shocking story of Santiago Posteguillo, who experienced the overflowing of the Poyo ravine: “We saw people disappearing into the water”
“What is impressive is that in thirteen minutes there was a brutal torrent two meters of water without controlwhich dragged branches, trees, cars. An industrial warehouse located in front of our building was destroyed; It took away the gate door, the entire front wall, the entire neighboring premises…”, he explained.
When he observed the water coming, he feared for the structure of the building. Six hours of non-stop torrenting. We saw people disappearing into the water“, the writer recalled in detail.
That night, Posteguillo described, the neighbors went to bed without water or electricity, thinking that “logically” At dawn, the Civil Guard, firefighters and the army would already be deployed. “But at dawn, there was no one there,” he lamented.
On the second day, at nightfall, there was “looting”. But they still hoped the authorities would get closer the next day. “How come no one comes within 48 hours, can someone explain to me? In Spain? In the 21st century?” he asked.
“At the third dawn”, when there was still “no one institutionally”, only volunteers, he took the computer on which he wrote his novel, his notes from Caesar’s third novel, and dragged these belongings in a suitcase with his partner “for miles and miles.” kilometers until arriving in Valencia”, where he has an apartment.
Along the way, he sees “corpses that had not yet been evacuated, overturned cars, destroyed buildings…”. “You cannot imagine the level and feeling of the devastated populations,” he concluded.
