Marcelo Sestelo was reborn. His wife, Claudia, and his daughter, Klara, know it, who is the one who speaks with EL ESPAÑOL. Marcelo arrived home this Wednesday morning still full of adrenaline. It was recorded a video of relief in which he says ‘good night’ to her, as it is daylight, he sums up his experience in two minutes and can no longer speak. To Marcelo The flood caught him on the bridge overlooking the Ikea in Alfafar (Valencia). He saw how the water rose, how people were carried away by the water and, together with other anonymous Valencians in the same situation, they organized the rescue of many people affected by DANA. The latest official data now shows 92 deaths in Valencia.
He is one of Around 600 people spent the night in the Swedish tent. The next morning he walked home. This is why, because he is now aware of what he experienced, the last details of the story are told by his daughter, Klara. “Now he’s on the couch, his body completely sore,” because in the water, while he was saving people, “a paddle hit him. I don’t know how he’s still standing.”
The family is of Argentinian origin and has lived in the Valencian Community for 20 years. The father, Marcelo, He is 44 years old, he is a truck driver and lives in Sollana22 kilometers from Valencia. Tuesday he worked like any other day, until at 6 p.m. he had to go to Rivarroja to unload. This last mission he refused to do it “Because I knew the situation was going to get worse,” explains Klara.
So the man got on his motorbike and went home. Around 7:30 p.m., in Alfafar, the motorcycle was broken by the height of the water. Right on the bridge that goes up to Ikea. In front of him and behind him, rows of cars in the same situation. He informed his wife, Claudia, without even knowing that the worst was to come: “The tow truck is not going to come now. It will come tomorrow, or I don’t know when. But hey. Send me the tow truck here, d ‘agreement ? “
The DANA, near the Ikea in Alfafar (Valencia).
In a few minutes, the situation becomes dangerous. “In front of the bridge there were a lot of people. The water started to rise very quickly and with great force,” Marcelo says in the video recorded upon his arrival at his home yesterday morning. There were people clinging to lampposts to avoid being swept away by the water. “All of a sudden, someone, I don’t know if it was Ikea or who, took out a rope and With two other boys we went to the water to try to bring these people to the bridge”, located at a higher altitude, and therefore more protected.
The cars “started to float, the water started to flow suddenly, with incredible force. The level kept rising, and people started crossing with children in armson the shoulders. Seniors, men, women. And another part (of the people) stayed in the roundabout, because there came a time when the water was so high that they could no longer do it with force.”
To approach the second part of his testimony, he takes a breath and stops looking at the camera. To his left “there was a van, and a boy on top of the van who didn’t dare jump in. Water It was already up to my chest. So, well. I tried, with a car floating in the back attached to a lamp post, I tried to go over there and get to the other side to be closer and the water was too strong to Me. “He didn’t dare to jump.”
Marcelo Sestelo, yesterday morning, recounting his experience.
The water continued to rise higher. “The van started to drive away with him at the top. The man tried to throw himself at the foot of the bridge, and we couldn’t do anything for him. “We saw how the water took it away.”
In ‘sock’
The next communication with his wife took place at 9:16 p.m. via audio, to which this newspaper had access. It is absolutely in shock and with an awkward tone of voice. “Claudia…sends the Civil Guard to the Ikea roundabout, where the bridge rises. It goes higher and higher…we help a lot of people cross the roundabout, with babies and everything, with ropes and put in the water I… there was a boy, who… who… I swam to grab it and couldn’t get it out. The current carried it away, Claudia. There are children at the roundabout. There are boys, there are women… please send help… I couldn’t get him out, I jumped in the water and I didn’t I couldn’t get him out… the water took him away. Please send help.”
Klara tells the story of her father. “This boy was on the roof of his vehicle. He told me he had a panic attack and he didn’t want to jump, and when the car started to be dragged, he jumped and was carried away by the current. My father has the license plate number.”, he reflects. “Just in case it’s worth it.” Marcelo saved a paralyzed driver at his seat. “It was a miracle,” explains his daughter. “Because he came closer, saw my father and jumped.”
Then, among other things, “they made a small bridge with palletsimprovised, from the Ikea to the bridge where they were.” The store had already become a shelter, and Marcelo and the others were cared for “with blankets, socks and shoes. That is, dry clothes. They also gave his father some towels and placed them next to the radiator to prevent hypothermia. They were able to eat, sleep on mats and recharge their cell phones. They spent the night there. Ikea was great,” Klara sums up.
Marcelo, who also thanks Ikea for the help and attention he gave them, lent the phone to a girl who worked in a mattress store and who had miraculously left the store: through a skylight. “My father kept us informed all night. I turned my phone off and on again to save battery.
In the morning, Marcelo left for his house. He traveled much of the way to Silla and recorded the desolation and destruction caused by the flood.
Marcelo, returning home Wednesday morning via the Silla track.
“At the final stretch, a man driving a van picked him up and took him to Silla, where my mother lives. From there, as the water was cut off in Silla, we took them taken to my father’s house in Sollana so they could eat, shower and be calm. I’m meeting them both now,” Klara concludes.
