It was a more or less normal afternoon Paiporta. We have been warned of the risks of DANAbut we never thought such a thing could happen. I decided to stay home in case it rained too much, even though only four drops fell. At three o’clock in the afternoon, it was hardly raining but it was there was a strong windnothing far from normal, although it didn’t take long for that to change.
At seven in the afternoon, I started receiving video calls, photos… everything. it had overflowed ravine which is only 800 meters away from my house. My son, who was playing outside, ran over and told me the streets were starting to flood. The water had reached our streets! In Paiporta it hardly rained, but the water that came down from the ravine came from the surrounding villages.
What started as a little water turned into sea in just 20 minutes. We went from two bodies of water to five feet in the blink of an eye. My husband and other neighbors went to the garages to try to get the cars out, but it was too late. The water rose so quickly that we all had to go inside the houses. Suddenly The electricity went out and I heard the first cries for help..
They were the neighbors downstairs. They had been locked up.
Cars destroyed in Paiporta.
The ground floor was inaccessible. The doors could not be opened due to the water pressure and we had to operate from the interior patio. Some neighbors managed to climb down with a ladder, sawed the window bars and managed to get several women out, as well as a man with his dog. With all the complications there were, things couldn’t have gotten much worse, but they did.
A very old man in a wheelchair He was stuck with his nanny and we couldn’t move him because he was very fragile. A neighbor volunteered and they stayed together all night in the flooded factory.
It was already ten o’clock in the evening. With all the neighbors together We had to distribute ourselves to houses that were not filled with water. The flood continued to grow and the cars looked like boats, floating in the middle of the streets, dragged by the debris and the flood. It was total chaos! All the car alarms were beeping and clicking, while the emergency services could do nothing. Us even less watch and wait.
The water receded during the night but we couldn’t sleep a wink. My family and I, my neighbors, everyone was horrified. At dawn, we could see how our entire neighborhood had been destroyed. Full of branches, layers and layers of mud, garbage, debris. In addition, from eight o’clock in the afternoon until four o’clock in the afternoon on Wednesday, we were deprived of electricity and drinking water. At least now we have light.
Start of flooding in Paiporta.
We live in the upper reaches, and while our region is bad, the lower reaches are war zones. A total disaster. All the shutters of the shops have fallen and people are looting them. We are isolated and desperate, there is no water and the bridges to enter or exit the city have fallen or are unsafe. We don’t know what to do, the neighbors are going to their loved ones and as the situation is not improving, we will also have to walk to Valencia. We have never been so scared in our lives!
