“Alfafar, where I work, looks like a war scene”

Javier Munoz He is a man from Malaga who has lived in Valencia for 15 years. He lives in the neighborhood of Patraixless than five kilometers from the area most affected by the flooding caused by DANA in eastern Spain. In fact, without going any further, he works in a city that looks apocalyptic today, Alfafar. In his own words, he became a real war scene.

Last Tuesday, October 29, Javier went to work like any other day. He left the Suma sports center in Alfafar, where he is marketing director, at 5:30 p.m. It wasn’t raining at all and the sky was “lead”. “Come on, the ground was dry,” he explains. Nothing made him foresee, nor the director of the center, that a few hours later, around eight o’clock in the afternoon, a flood would arrive, undoubtedly becoming something “worse than that of 1957”, the one that so many of Valenciens have always lived. be careful when a cold drop comes.

“Where it really rained was around Utiel and Chiva, in the mountains, at the source of the rivers that flow into the southern region,” he says. In the gymnasium, they experienced a power outage that he and his director perceived as “normal.” Then came the drop in water pressure in the showers. “On the way to town we felt that since we were on alert [roja desde las 7.36 horas]the best thing was to make a statement and close the center. So we did it. We have sent the workers home and everyone is safe, although some have lost their homes and their cars destroyed,” he says.

Only the maintenance technician was at the center when the worst happened. stay at the top of the sports center waiting for news on how to maneuver. Luckily, he’s okay too and that’s definitely the most important thing for Javier. “It was already while we were in Valencia that we received the famous message [20.12 horas]but the moment this alert arrived, the cocoa was already assembled. You have to imagine, for example, Malaga at seven o’clock in the afternoon, with its road in turmoil, everyone returning from work… It was very serious,” laments this man from Malaga in the distance.

The Valencian capital escaped the nightmare thanks to hydraulic works which permit to divert the river Turia outside the urban center after the devastating floods of 1957. Muñoz is convinced that the area where he lives would also have been affected by DANA if this work had not been carried out.

The man from Malaga believes that at present few people in Valencia complain about the construction that is being done around the rivers, because the water has devastated “areas where there was no river bed “. “It has a much bigger dimension, seriously, it’s like If the Guadalmedina overflows and reaches the Cádiz or La Malagueta highway. It’s not that he arrives alone in La Trinidad, which is next to him…” he adds, trying to find a comparison with Malaga to explain the desolate situation they live in their land of ‘adoption.

like war

This Thursday, Javier was able to walk the streets of Alfafar after going to his workplace with the manager of the sports center to try to collect everything that could be salvaged. What was in the box, “sensitive” things that needed to be kept safe… But the reality is that There is not much to save from this municipal sports complex.

“We know we have to start from scratch” Javier said with resignation. The exterior spaces, swimming pools, cellars and exterior floors, as well as all furniture and documents, were left completely destroyed following the devastating floods they suffered. “We also tried to save what we had in the freezers and gave it to the chef José Andrés. If it was useful for making sandwiches or something, so much the better,” he says.

A few hours earlier, from his home in Valencia, he thought that Everything was on his TV and he was living a nightmare. But it wasn’t like that. It hurt his heart to walk through the streets of Alfafar, worthy of any war scene. “It really looks like there was a war there. When you walk the streets and you see lots of cars piled up and crowded together, lots of mud, people with so much desolation… War zone. And not a neighborhood. An entire commune and practically a region,” he laments.

Javier is not surprised that help from security forces is not arriving in certain areas. “People complain logically because there are areas that the firefighters do not reach, but there are so many kilometers affected, that I think that There cannot be enough for such a volume, It is a phenomenon never seen before, even in terms of population density, it is an area where many Valencian workers live and the municipalities are very close to each other,” he says.

He shudders when he sees how the death toll increases. In addition, he believes that when security and military forces manage to access all underground parking lots in affected areas, they could multiply. “Many people have lost their lives because of the question of material goods. You see that it is raining, you have your car for twenty or thirty thousand euros and you cannot imagine that you are going to stay in the garage on the way to try to save it There are people who played it and they stayed in garages. Some are completely flooded“, said.

He emphasizes that it is very important to talk about the psychological factor in these situations, the wave of solidarity this Friday being worth highlighting. “In the end, if your neighbor is the same, and so is the other, each of you is alone, equal. But if three young people from the city come to you to help you, pick up anything, that’s different.… In these situations, help and affection are very rewarding,” he says.

The Alfafar clinic and town hall are also apocalyptic, totally devastated by the effects of DANA, as well as the small shops in the neighborhood. “I don’t know how they will recover. Some will not be able to hold on until help arrives. The entire industrial fabric has been destroyed and I think it will take a lot of money to recover . It’s not a question of months. I would say there are some very difficult years ahead. Everyone here says it’s historic.“, ditch.