From the BBC:
“Valencia floods: Spain clings
to fragments of hope in time of disaster”
(Daniel Burguet is now considered
a local hero after a video of him smashing a door to take four children to
safety went viral)
Floods and torrential rain
returned to the Valencia region on Wednesday night, but this time they were
ready for it, and the areas hit two weeks ago escaped further disaster. More
than 220 people died in this eastern coastal area at the end of October, and
the town of Paiporta was hit hardest with the loss of 60 lives. In the midst of
despair the local population are understandably searching for beacons of hope,
for example the remarkable story of what happened at the Whitby English
language school.
As the whole road became engulfed in water,
the college’s co-director, Daniel Burguet, repeatedly pounded against a door
with a chair leg that he’d just picked up. Filmed from a 3rd floor balcony
across the street, Daniel is seen smashing constantly against the glass. He is
trapped with his 11-year-old daughter, Noa, and three younger children inside
the school, unable to reach a higher floor. Eventually, Danny breaks down the
door of the next building along and, one by one, he pulls the children to
safety. “When I got through that door, I felt so relieved. Finally, we were
safe,” Daniel tells me as he carries on repairs to the school. In the quest for
fragments of solace, it’s also perhaps understandable that when tales of
bravery are found, they are celebrated unashamedly. Local media have hailed
Danny as the "Hero of Pairporta". “There are a lot of people who did
the same thing that day, many ‘heroes’ like me, if you want to call us that,”
he says. “I feel good about it. I feel the love of people around here. I was
the one who was filmed, but there were many other heroes.” Rebuilding Spain’s
shattered and traumatised communities will require an heroic effort that goes
on for months.
The threat hasn’t gone away.
(Brother and sister Juan Jose and
Lourdes Montane say they feel abandoned by the authorities)
A fortnight after the worst
floods to hit a single European country this century, Paiporta is still full of
firefighters, police officers as well as the Red Cross and an army of daily
volunteers. Volunteers and emergency services are working to clean the streets
in Paiporta, in Spain, two weeks after the region was hit by deadly floods But
many residents feel the unofficial community-generated effort is not being
matched by the authorities – either at the regional or national level. “It was
a tsunami,” declares Juan José Montane. He shows me the video he took from his
apartment as floating cars were hurled against the walls below him. “It was
only thanks to God that I survived,” he exclaims, furiously making the sign of
the cross three times. Divine intervention aside, it’s the lack of intervention
from the Valencia and central government which is now infuriating him. “This is
shameful, we feel abandoned," says Juan José. "For four days we
didn’t see the army coming to help. We need more troops here.” His sister,
Lourdes, fears for how the town will re-build with so much lost and now a
severe lack of infrastructure. “We feel imprisoned here. There are no roads, it
is horrible,” she explains. "We lost everything in this town, everything.”
Although the vast majority of
houses are still standing, there is a lack of electricity, hot or drinking
water in the streets that were the worst hit. In Paiporta, piles of mangled
cars have been created on roundabouts and at other places out of the way of
traffic. It’s estimated as many as 100,000 cars were destroyed during the
floods. Some abandoned vehicles that look pretty much intact, apart from a
dented bonnet here or a flat tyre there, are not spared either. Instead, they
are grabbed by giant claw cranes that smash down through the windscreen and
lift the vehicles away. The loss of possessions has been immense in this
region. The loss of life crushing. And the trauma’s not over. The mayor has
urged people to stay inside, as the local population waits for the latest flood
alert to subside.
^ In the midst of such tragedy we
need to see and hear these kinds of everyday stories. ^
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