Jose Manuel Ruiz He is an independent driver and this Sunday he took to the road to work for free, carry a load of 14,000 kilos of solidarity until Catarroja: one of the localities in the L’Horta region affected by the most serious DANA of the century which cost the lives of 217 people. “I work at Torrecotrans and I usually take the road between Murcia and Valencia, I know many colleagues affected by DANA” underlines José Manuel, at the wheel of a huge three-axle Mercedes truck, at the start of a two-hour journey during which he is accompanied by a journalist from EL ESPAÑOL. “It was a disaster.
“I didn’t even think about itor when it comes to joining this solidarity convoy“, as this driver insists that this Sunday 223 kilometers of road will be covered, from the Polígono Base 2000 of Lorquí to Catarroja, despite the fact that there is a yellow alert for torrential rains of up to 100 liters per square meter, to join a solidarity convoy that the famous company Carrozas y Juguetes Belando has set up, in collaboration with the Murcia City Council.
The convoy made up of six trucks and vans, loaded with more than 80,000 kilos of food, water, baby diapers, cleaning and personal hygiene productsas well as clothes and stoves, leaves this Sunday at 1:15 p.m., after listening to the businessman’s final instructions. Juan Pedro Belandoaccompanied by the sports councilor of Murcia, Miguel Ángel Noguera, as well as several municipal mayors like José Burruezo, responsible for four neighborhoods in the northern district of the capital of Segura who went out of their way to donate basic products and items household. in Catarroja where their neighbors do not have access to drinking water.
Members of the solidarity convoy left this Sunday from the Region of Murcia towards Catarroja.
“We go directly to the Catarroja sports center“, underlines businessman Juan Pedro Belando, equipped with a reflective bib on the back of which we can read a word that clearly indicates that he carries the constant voice of the convoy: ‘Organization’. “Be very careful on the road.”
In the convoy we enter the Mediterranean highway (A-7) and a light covering of rain greets us. “We will go through Alzira and Alfafar,” warns driver José Manuel Ruiz, 47 years old. “YesIt will be two hours of travel: yes The highway is closed, we’ll have to get out pairhas take the national road passing through the Valencia orchard“.
José Manuel Ruiz, Torrecotrans driver, this Sunday, driving his truck to Catarroja loaded with aid.
In the cabin of this rigid truck, his wife, Santi Contreras Martínez, 35 years old, administrative agent at Torrecotrans, is also traveling. “I wasn’t going to let my husband travel alone, not knowing what he was going to find along the way.“, Santi reflected, just before bursting into tears. “Tuesday’s DANA passed through the Region of Murcia and nothing happened, but in Valencia they lost everything in an instant. I know many Valencian truckers who lost their homes, their cars… The truth is that it could have happened to us. “It’s been a lottery.”
It is twenty minutes past two, the convoy is crossing Caudete and the rain is not stopping. On the radio, Jose Manuel settled the COPE be informed during the trip of any DANA incident. The mobile phone is placed on a support so that Google Mapss warn in real time of the panorama on the highway. HAS 2:36 p.m. We find a Civil Guard checkpoint, near La Font de la Figuera. “They are diverting heavy goods vehicles via Madrid to go to Barcelona. Only we are passing because we are bringing aid.”
Question.- Have you ever had to wear something like this in your career?
Answer.- Jose Manuel Ruiz: He took 30 years of activity as a professional driver, but I have never taken a solidarity ride of these characteristics. Although in the DANA of the 2019 that assigned the Region of Murcia, a Civil Guard patrol, while I was near the Marvimundo warehouses in the El Puente Industrial Zone, they asked me if I could help them with the truck and I didn’t doubt it for a single second. I put has rescue has people stuck in their homes in the Alguazas orchard: I lowered the tailgate and four women They climbed onto the truck bed.
Santi, attentive to the road, with her husband, José Manuel, in the cabin of the Torrecotrans truck.
José Manuel is one of those truck drivers who don the superhero cape, as happened during the confinement of the coronavirus pandemic, when transporters risked their necks to continue distributing food to the country’s supermarkets or medical equipment. “Oh my God, there’s a steel company I was going to that’s destroyed.“, underlines this transporter. “It’s a reality check,” adds his wife, Santi, as the truck begins to pass through some towns affected by DANA.
There is virtually no traffic on the highway. Along the sides of the road are cones and signs warning of the presence of obstacles. In the background, we see mountains and mountains of goods destroyed by the rage of the rain. You will also see military vehicles working overtime to clean the villages in the L’Horta region. The sound of ambulances warns us that we are getting closer to DANA ground zero. “My God, what a loss for the economy: there are a lot of oranges in the fields“Santi emphasizes spontaneously.
The atmosphere on the road has nothing to do with what José Manuel encounters every day, when he transports detergents, plastic parts, iron, canned goods to Valencia… “On each trip, you make friends at service area stops or while loading or unloading in polygonal warehouses,” this independent driver sadly recalls. “A colleague who works as a transporter in a company in Paterna has lost everything because he lives in Paiporta.”
Q.- Do you know many Valencian carriers affected by the DANA tragedy?
R.- José Manuel Ruiz: Yes, a colleague who worked in Ribarroja was trapped in the company by DANA, along with his colleagues, and the last thing I know is that there were still around forty people there. I called him back, but his cell phone was dead.I double. The truth is that andsta I didn’t sleep more than two hours straight tonight, thinking about the trip.
Q.- What worried you?
A.- I don’t know what we will see when we arrive in Catarroja and start distributing everything we are carrying. I hope I don’t come across the body of a deceased person.
