A few days after one of the worst natural disasters in the history of Spain, in Valencia, residents continue to live next to the remains of a large number of lifeless bodies. In Sedavi, a population of 10,000 inhabitants Just 12 kilometers from the capital, garages are still overflowing with wastewater. A mixture of mud and oil the car stains the police boots EMU who carry out scuba diving for the sole purpose of find dead
“It seems difficult, but after four days it is clear that We don’t expect to find anyone alive. underwater. We are looking where we know there are missing people,” explains one of them. In this particular garage, belonging to a community of neighbors in which they live approximately 30 people, we think there are six bodies underwater. But this is not yet confirmed. They could be more or less. “We have two doors and we don’t know if, when everything happened, someone was dragged inside,” says the president of the community, visibly affected.
The Military Emergency Unit, which arrived in the province of Valencia with the sole aim, according to its own members, of “support for the removal of corpses”they register the largest car parks in the Sedaví region but also in Alfafar, Benetúser and Cataroja. In another private garage in the neighborhood, with the GEAS of the Civil Guard —Underwater specialist groups – to another group of people. “The neighbors tell us that there could be people inside because they haven’t heard from them since Tuesday.”they explain.
“Taco Body”
While a team prepares the dive, the coordinators’ radio announces new disappearances: “Group requested due to possible presence in Blasco Ibáñez”. In many places, however, they cannot enter due to the dangers involved in such an activity. “At the bottom there is no visibility. And the water is quite corrosive due to the situation we find ourselves in. We find bodies by touch” explains an employee of the UME.
In the background you can hear how Divers break car windows. They do it by inertia to try to find something inside the car. But it could take hours or days. The most effective, they argue, is drain well parking lots to be able to enter. However, the pumps used are not enough and require several days or even weeks to remove all the water from surfaces of different levels.
On Gómez Ferrer Street in Sedaví, right in front of the public library, people walk with shovels and buckets trying to help while a group of ERICAM —the emergency and immediate intervention group of the Community of Madrid— also begins a new immersion in the waters. They do it, they say, to support the UME and the GEAS of the Civil Guard in these tasks.
An ERICAM officer while diving in a garage in Sedaví. Photograph taken with the Leica SL3.
This is just one sample among many parking lots in which they hope to find the remains of several deceased people cause of DANA. “We are used to saving people from under the rubble. Here it is different. It is a terrible situation. We are looking for something else“, says Daniel, a member of ERICAM deployed in the area since Wednesday.
Epicenter of the tragedy
Other groups of Valencia Fire Brigade They work in the Plaza del Ayuntamiento de Sedaví where it is considered the zero point of the tragedy of parking lots. Here there is supposed to be 15 people missingbut this is data which is processed internally and on which the firefighters themselves claim not to be completely clear. “We’ll know when we’re done, but it looks really bad. It’s a pretty big garage and it’s completely flooded,” he said. Michael while placing a water extraction pump.
A firefighter empties the municipal parking lot at the Plaza del Ayuntamiento de Sedaví. Photograph taken with the Leica SL3.
Along the same lines, another of his colleagues says that they are trying not to do scuba diving anymore: “We can’t risk going in and dying, at the end of the day we know the people who are here are already dead”said. As he finishes the sentence, he realizes the coldness that accompanies it and tries to contextualize it: “Think a car could roll over and trap you or something. We have no visibility. “
The UME continues its journey through the parking lots which ends in the tunnel that connects the town of Alfarfa to Benetúser. Several units moved quickly there when they saw the possibility that a person was alive stuck between vehicles. Moments later, a woman is rescued from the rubble, alive.
A UME truck waits for the drainage of a tunnel between Benatúser and Alfafar. Photograph taken with the Leica SL3.
Volunteer divers
But they are not capable of achieving everything, they say. This is why many volunteers also joined the rescue efforts in the underground car parks. In another residential parking lot, a group of Federation of Underwater Activities of the Valencian Community They are preparing for a new dive.
They do so, this time, ready to stay underwater for a long time. “It’s quite dangerous. We’re going there without light. But we have to try”Estíbaliz said at the door, visibly tired. As she finishes singing the phrase, they emerge from the depths of the world. parking Ángel, Rubén, Eduardo and Pedro.
Edu prepares to dive into the depths of a garage in Sedaví. Photograph taken with the Leica SL3.
All four, also belonging to the same federation and voluntarily displaced, devote themselves to the search for lifeless bodies in the waters. “Nothing, yet. We’ll have to go back.”said Angel. A few meters away, Ximo And Aroa managed to voluntarily bring a motorcycle water and empty a garage Benetuser.
“We’ve been here since 9 a.m. [era casi el anochecer] and yesterday we were in Catarroja,” explains Ximo. They have a rental company jet ski and they realized that they could help in this way. The EMU and the rest of the emergency teams with limited water extraction pumps appreciate the initiative.
Ximo and his son pose next to the jet ski they use to empty garages. Photograph taken with the Leica SL3.
Meanwhile, unofficial sources of people working in emergencies acknowledge SPANISH who believe that the number of deaths will soon reach the number of 500. Although Emergency Committee documentation acknowledges that there are currently approximately 1,900 people missing.
Most of them are located on the first floor of buildings, on the ground floor or, more precisely, in underground parking lots. The neighbors try to sleep every night, even though they know they are doing so near dead bodies. As the EMU prepares for one of the last dives of the night, a young thirty-year-old stands in front of the garage doors of her house and, sighing, articulates: “I want to wake up tomorrow and believe that all of this is nothing.” not arrived.
