Inside sixth day of the tragedysolidarity is no longer enough. The mayors of certain Valencian municipalities devastated by DANA are demanding energetic actions from the rest of the administrations, specialized and economic aid to be able to move forward. They were responsible for managing and distributing all the clothing or food that arrived by different means.
Most of the areas devastated by the floods, despite problems with mobile coverage, were able to recover electricity and water. However, the situation remains critical and certain points remain secret, they explain. four mayors of the province of Valencia at ABC. “This is not going to stop today or tomorrow.” The official death toll is stagnating at 210, but advisers expect many more. There are still mud-covered streets, piled-up cars and flooded garages that are inaccessible.
A third of the city of Useful always flooded. Gas has not yet been restored for its 12,000 inhabitants in an area where the nights are starting to get colder. “We lost six lives. There are hundreds and hundreds of people who have lost everything. The roads are broken. We need a lot of help to rebuild the city and the houses, because people have been left on the streets,” says Ricardo Gabaldón, mayor of this municipality, the first to request the intervention of the Military Emergency Unit the day of the tragedy.
Image of the cleaning work this Saturday in the streets of Utiel
“Now is the time to really see if we are abandoned or not. I don’t believe in it, but it will depend on what is done or not with management. All this must move forward and it must be fast, because otherwise those who will pay for it will be the citizens”, emphasizes Gabaldón about the coordination between the different institutions.
“We have already saved the emergencybut local competitions do not go any further. I don’t want to attack any administration, I just want them to step up their efforts. We all have to do the rebuilding together: the municipality, the community and the state,” he said.
“There is coordination, but from the street it is difficult to see it. As mayor, I do not feel abandoned, but I understand this feeling among the citizens”, explains Maribel Albalat, councilor of Paiportaone of the municipalities hardest hit by the floods. “We need an even greater deployment of firefighters and the army to finish evacuating the bodies and complete the clean-up, because we can no longer tolerate this situation,” laments Albalat, who is in charge of more than 27 000 people.
Fear of sewage clogging due to sludge
In Massanassa (9,500 inhabitants), also in the metropolitan area of Valencia, there are fears that the removal of the mud that still accumulates in the streets will eventually cause a health problem. “If we throw all the water mixed with sludge down the drain, it will destroy all the collection infrastructure in the area. We have to wait for the machines to arrive to remove it, even if it dries,” warns its mayor, Paco Comes.
The same thing happens with waste: “We make divisions so that people don’t throw trash in the street and place it, for example, on the balcony, until we can restore the container collection service in certain areas. Meanwhile, the municipal architect and 20 area volunteers are assessing buildings whose basements have been flooded to see if they have suffered damage and whether or not neighbors need to be evacuated, “at least so that the people stay calm,” says Comes. .
In Torrentthe UME and the firefighters are working to continue opening rural roads to improve the situation in which some urbanizations find themselves, providing them with food and machinery. The mayor, Amparo Folgado, asks the Spanish government to clarify what types of aid it will send, not only for families who have lost their homes in the municipality, but also to rebuild communications infrastructure.
“We are talking about 90,000 residents coming in and out of the city every day. Currently we have an access road which is via AP-7. Tomorrow is Monday and I don’t know how many people will be able to go to work. People ask us why we have practically three impassable bridges that connect us to the city of Valencia and other municipalities. We need certainty», Folgado Ditch.
