It was 5:50 p.m. on Tuesday, October 29, when he decided to go out for some fresh air at the door of his house. At that precise moment, the screams and people fleeing her neighborhood alarmed her. A brown wave rose a few meters from their urbanization: it was the Magro river, about to overflow at Alcúdia.
These are the statements of Gina Martínez, testimony from the municipality in which two DANA deaths were recorded out of the 202 people already confirmed according to the Emergency Coordination Center. Currently, there are five deaths in the Ribera Alta region.
The flow of the river began to hit the inhabitants of Utiel, exceeding a meter and a half in height and destroying everything in its path. In the Ribera Alta, it began to flood the areas it usually crosses until it flows into the Xúquer, near Algemesí.
640.8 liters per square meter is the figure recorded at the Torís-Canyapar observatory (Ribera Alta) in less than 24 hours, as reported in X by the Valencian Meteorological Association. (Avamet). A historic figure from this last century, which exceeded 520 liters per square meter in Tavernes de la Valldigna on September 11, 1996, during one of the cold waves that shook the Valencian territory.
“We lost the entire ground floor. This was where my grandfather lived. There is neither the sofa, nor the refrigerator, nor the dishwasher. We had a horrible time and the power went out. The next morning, we were able to take out the waste,” he says.
The solidarity of volunteers and the widespread help of neighbors paint scenarios of hope and a return to “normality” after one of the worst torrential rains of the century. Shovels, pipes and brooms constantly occupy the avenues.
In some areas of the municipality, the taps still do not offer a drop of water, while they are plunged into despair because they cannot get their own supplies from supermarkets: “For the moment, only Mercadona is open, and there are no more bottles. A friend brought me a liter because we don’t have any at home. “We also have no information on what will happen in the coming days.”
According to City Hall’s own account, they reported that only “40% of the water available in the reservoir” is arriving because the main pipe that crosses the mountain has “some leaks.”
“We will recover material losses, but fatal losses are the worst that can happen to us. “I want to send all my love to people who have lost someone,” he said.
Algemesí, one of the areas in the region with the most deaths
“At 3 p.m. I left my job in Valencia, went home and went to the river to record it. When I came back, it started to overflow. Around 6:40 p.m., there was already water in my street, and around ten o’clock in the evening we had power cuts. We lost everything we had in the garage: the stoves, the fans and even the car. My aunt, who lived in a cellar, was unable to salvage anything. “We have been working for more than two days to try to remove the mud from their house, but it is very complicated.”
This is what a testimony from Algemesí tells us, who prefers not to reveal his name. The Dantesque image of the water current, which rose with intensity in all the streets of the city, prevented him from resting during the first hours of the disaster: “I was afraid because I always heard noise. “We tried to sleep, but got up to look at what the outside looked like.”
The next day, at seven in the morning, they decided to go out to check on the people closest to them. According to the statements of the person concerned, the UME, firefighters, police and civil protection are working to evacuate water, clean areas or assist the centers where dozens of donations arrive.
A local company collaborated in removing cars from their street that were blocking all traffic: “There was a barricade and with the machines they had, they were able to move them. »
No part was spared from the devastation of the rain. Water has seeped into all the cellars and the general opinion of residents is that “everything is ready to be thrown away”, as confirmed by this source.
During the day on Thursday, several accesses were available again and communication was gradually restored after being without electricity for more than 48 hours. However, there are citizens who still do not have electricity at home: “A neighbor lets me use theirs. wifi, and my aunt has no electricity or water. “She can’t even stay in her house because it’s so destroyed.”
The NGO Algemesí Solidari shares delivery and collection points for basic needs and has opened a bank account to allocate donations to people who need them most. In turn, the Algemesí City Hall also highlighted that any type of donation can be requested at the Casal de Fiestas, Nou del Convent Street, 82 or at the Polivalent Center, in Carrers dels Serrans.
So far, seven victims have been recorded in this locality, three of them located in one of the underground car parks, as reported and confirmed by À Punt.
“We had to go out and listen to the radio in the car because we didn’t know anything about the outside. »
“There are neighbors who have lost everything, businesses are completely unusable and the roads have collapsed. The patio started to flood and we had to move furniture and buy bricks and cement to keep other people out. The bridge that connects Llombai or Alfarb was covered in water. We had to go to Carlet to buy. “My father spent two hours waiting in line just to get eggs and milk. »
These are the statements of Vicent Sabater, a resident of Catadau, one of the three municipalities of Marquesat and one of the most devastated areas of Ribera Alta. Cut off, he had to go to the car to turn on the radio. At that moment, he knew what was happening outside. “Catadau suffered because we emptied our water and that of Llombai, and everything accumulated,” he emphasizes.
Streets full of stones hinder passage, flooded supermarkets and power cuts, which aggravate the situation, create a scenario of uncertainty. Together, they had to go out of the house to open the sewers so the water could flow out.
“It was very painful not being able to tell those close to you that you were okay and that there were people who needed help. The day after the rains, we saw power lines downed and a bridge destroyed in Carlet. We spent days cleaning and there is still more,” the person concerned describes to this media.
Two days passed without his acquaintances having any trace of him and his family, until he was able to go to Alginet, to his grandparents who had access to drinking water.
The meter and a half of water ended up destroying premises such as clothing stores, a hairdresser and even a physiotherapy center “opened a month ago”. “As far as it goes, we were lucky. In the afternoon of Thursday we were able to recover electricity and Internet. It was celebrated with the clamor of neighbors in the street,” Sabater tells us.
In the audio messages he sends us, we perceive the feeling of indignation in the face of a “poorly managed” disaster: “We received the alert on two cell phones around 8:00 p.m. It is worrying that a president would contradict himself and send a message when people were already dying. I think it has become late and impromptu and when everything happens, accountability will be demanded. We have moved forward thanks to city residents and municipalities.
Iberdrola managed to restore 85% of electricity supplywhich represents approximately 132,000 people affected in the province of Valencia, leaving another 23,000 users without this resource. The distributor’s teams continue to correct errors in accessible installations and explain that they have 80 generators which are connected where technically possible.
Catadau is one of the areas where 21 fallen supports and 7 seriously damaged were located, according to information from the Spanish electricity network. They explain that emergency solutions are being deployed to strengthen the network and ensure the safety of roads, access and other infrastructure, but that for the moment, the situation on the ground prevents the passage of heavy machinery necessary for repairs.
Phones activated to coordinate help
From the Generalitat Valenciana, different telephone numbers have been activated to speed up coordination between the different regions and volunteers who approach areas on foot or by car. For Utiel, the contact is 659289726; Horta Sud: 682177249; la Ribera: 619975059; la Hoya de Buñol: 690027099; and Castellón: 679161664. A website has also been created to “offer proposals or contributions from individuals”.
