“A friend left me the car.” “I go by bike to Valencia.” “I walk seven kilometers every day.” “I haven’t been able to work yet because I’m a painter and I don’t have a van.” “A fellow electrician is taking me to Valencia.” Ground zero of the flood is still blocked and without vehicles after 137,600 of them were turned into scrap metal, devastated by the waters, according to data from the Ministry of Industry. This is the approximate number of cars recorded in total in the city of Bilbao.
In the Valencian municipality of Paiporta, the considered epicenter of the disaster, there are practically no cars left. According to its mayor, more than 95% of the automobile fleet is now made up of a mass of chassis piled up in the open field or near the Valence cemetery, where they are stored. The same thing happened in Picanya, Massanassa or Catarroja.
In addition, the flooded area was full of dealerships who saw their new and used vehicles disappear. In Valencia, when you wanted to buy a car, the habit was to go to Sedaví, Castellar, Alfafar… Today, there is nothing left. Mercedes, Ford, Citroen… They were all devastated. The Faconauto employers’ association estimates that 40 automobile workshops were affected by the floods and estimates losses at 490 million. Both manufacturers (Anfac), representatives of dealers, regional and central governments are coming together to break the deadlock and so that people can benefit from purchasing assistance. And you can buy this, because finding a car today in Valencia is “an odyssey”.
Josep, a 30-year-old teacher who lived from the window of his house in Catarroja, recounts how his town turned into mud. He teaches physical education in the town of Castellar (also concerned by DANA). “My mother’s friend who is on sick leave left me the car.” His was washed away by the flood and he doesn’t even know where it is. “Let me know.” Before October 29, it took ten minutes to get to work. Now he gets up at 5:30 a.m. to travel 10 kilometers: it takes more than two hours due to collapses on all the roads and the absence of a public service adapted to the needs of the province.
“I was lucky because my father worked at Ford and has a lot of knowledge in the industry. I was able to order one in good condition and I can pay for it because I had savings, but I have friends who lost both cars and at the moment they can’t find one. Even if you find it, another question is how you pay for it. “I still have to pay 15,500 euros for the car that disappeared – the Consortium compensates them, but the majority of people have not received payment yet – and I have to buy the new one if I want to work.” Like him, plumbers, delivery men, lawyers, SMEs and micro-SMEs who populate L’Horta Sud, full of industrial zones. Josep even considered going on foot, but it is dangerous to walk on the highways, although that is the option some workers found.
elDiario.es has confirmed with several dealers that there are very few vehicles for a very high demand, sudden and coincident in time: “I have a Dacia Sandero left at 8,500 euros or a Fiat 500 at 9,900 euros, but if it takes two days, I may still not have them, they keep them on the phone, without coming to see them,” says a seller from the capital, who warns that, taking advantage of situation, they detect online scams. . Among the new vehicles on display and in stock in stores in the region, 18,000 are flooded and unusable, according to the employers’ association.
There are those who ask for accommodation in other autonomous regions, because in Valencia they cannot find anything that can be afforded. Most in demand are thermal or hybrid utility vehicles, which attempt to bring trucks from the rest of Spain from Barcelona or Madrid, but connections have been complicated by road damage and access restrictions.
Meanwhile, Josep travels with a borrowed car with which he takes great care in case something happens to him. Vanesa activated her contacts to get two cars for her and her husband. Children from the flooded area who were transferred to other schools see how their 5 minutes of lessons turned into an hour. Workers wait for shuttles that do not arrive or arrive full. In fact, a particular association was responsible for producing a map of alternative transport and denouncing the fact that routes are being modified without notifying users.
“We are working on a Renew plan for the sector with them and with the participation of central government. We offer purchase aid and more for hybrids or plug-ins, in addition to a tax reduction,” they say to the Ministry of Industry, which entrusts the success of the plan to money that gives the executive of Pedro Sánchez. The Ministry of Industry confirms the meetings and assures that aid will be granted, but it will not be defined until next week, aware that the vehicle is a very necessary good. There are European funds (which must be linked to decarbonization, that is to say they would be primarily intended for electric cars) and “everything must also be finalized with the Treasury”, specify official sources.
