CHEMA MOYA/EPA
In the Spanish city where they died 225 due to the flooding caused by storm DANA, normality has not yet returned. There are 4 missing and a lot of uncleaned debris.
“There are people still living in situations deplorablewho have only now started to have hot water at home, without supermarkets and who stock up on food in a queue outside a churchwhere there is a food distribution point. We hoped that, by now, things would be much better.”
The Portuguese woman who lives in Valencia is the one who counts Inês Marques to , reporting on the destruction caused by storm DANA last month.
“What we are seeing is that, at the level of budgets to arrange other things, are extremely high for everything”, laments Inês, whose front door was destroyed by the floods — she had to put in a new one with financial help from the government.
“To install, for example, tiles in a certain area of the house, they ask for nine thousand euros. There are many people looking for this type of work so prices have gone up a lot.”
What took the longest to arrive were machines, he says, since the central government only sent direct aid. “THE Resource support was what took the longest to arrive. But there was direct aid of six thousand euros, which arrived from the central government”.
Already Marco Silva, Another young Portuguese resident in Valencia who has been voluntarily helping to clean up the debris, points the blame at the president of the Generalitat, who “or took action and nothing happenedand fall on him, for stopping a community without anything happening, or he would give the necessary alerts and, if it was confirmed what had happened and if everyone was at home, would be a hero“.
“I had to go and live 62 kilometers away from Valencia, where my wife’s family is, who are Spanish”, says another Portuguese, Pedro Sousa, whose daughter had to stay in Valencia because of school. “He’s staying with friends because we’re 60 kilometers away. Our life is there and it cannot live with us. I don’t like it at all, my family is not together“, he laments.
According to the news, in Valencia there is still need to clean basements and garages— places where more bodies were found — and beaches, in addition to removing cars found in more deserted locations, such as vineyards and fields. THE Water has not yet been fully restored, and there are streets without electricity.
Life has not yet returned to normal, and there are still 10 thousand students in Valencia who have not yet returned to classes.
“There is mud everywhere, and because of the dust we have to wear masks”, says Diana Jorge, another Portuguese woman who lives in Paiporta. The subway, which should be reestablished next week (December 6th), is also facing serious problems. “The bridge over which the subway I take does not exist” right now, says Diana.
