Miguel Ángel woke up like any other morning. At 7:30 a.m. his alarm went off, he ate breakfast, grabbed his car keys and left the house to go to work. What this 26-year-old Valencian man did not know is that this Tuesday, October 29, he would experience one of the worst days of his life. The DANA, which has devastated several towns and left more than 150 dead throughout the country, forced him to spend the night locked in his company building. He went to work around 8:30 a.m. He says that there was quite a bit of traffic jam, but nothing out of the ordinary because “Valencia collapses whenever it rains.” He took the A-3 to reach the La Reva industrial estate, in Riba-roja. Miguel Ángel assures ABC that “everything was normal,” although videos of the floods in Requena, his town, and Utiel were beginning to reach him via WhatsApp. “At no time did we imagine that this could happen here,” he says. The young man says that around 11:30 a.m. he saw that it was starting to rain and that it was “very windy.” «I had the car in the field next to my office. Later, at lunch, I changed it to some parking spaces that are in the building and that are a little higher,” he says. The chaos in the Riba-roja industrial estate due to DANAMiguel Ángel indicates that in a matter of minutes everything began to get complicated. «The world championship began to fall. The drops were very thick. It smelled strange to me, but I was more or less calm because we had water and some food,” he remembers. Related News standard Yes Sheets on the windows to ask for help: “There are people trapped here” José Ramón Navarro-Pareja | SENT TO UTIEL (VALENCIA) standard Yes Hugs, tears and exchange of telephone numbers: solidarity makes its way in Paiporta among a trail of death David Maroto | Special envoy to PaiportaThe Valencian finished his day at 6:00 p.m. and had planned to go outside to return home. Until that moment, no one had warned them about the state of the roads or the danger of the situation. «I went down to the hall to leave. I saw that it was raining heavily and that the cars had water up to half of their wheels. My companions and I stayed at the entrance waiting to see if he would stop a little. “I looked out again and there was a small stream,” he says. Miguel Ángel decided to go up to the third floor. Only two minutes passed. «I looked out the window and saw that the flood was carrying away the vehicles. “Everything was very fast,” he points out. Faced with this scenario, the young man warned the others, but on the ground floor water was already entering through the door. Water begins to enter the buildings of the Riba-Roja ABC industrial estate Cries for help, people trapped in cars and without electricity in the building At 7:00 p.m., DANA was in the Riba-roja industrial estate and all were there they feared the worst. Migue Ángel tells this newspaper that those who were inside the building witnessed all the chaos outside. «Those who were trapped in the cars got out as best they could and came running towards our office. Many people arrived injured. One man had a gash in his head and another had a bad hand. They took them to an area where there is a first aid kit to help them,” he recalls. The Valencian states that there was also a mother with a child and, luckily, they were able to help them. Part of the exterior of the Riba-roja ABC industrial estate They also lost power inside the building and an emergency alarm was activated that was making noise about six hours. A sound that, to this day, Miguel Ángel assures that it remains stuck in his mind. «People were clinging to tree trunks and screaming. I saw how a woman was dragged by the water» Miguel Ángel Roda, one of the workers who spent the night in the Riba-roja industrial estate. He will also never be able to forget the screams he heard. «There was a tremendous flood. People were clinging to tree trunks and screaming. I saw how a woman was dragged by the water. Some kids told me that they were in the basement when everything happened. They were able to leave, but a man stayed there,” he laments. And the storm was not the only problem that the employees of this company had. Miguel Ángel explains: «Around 9:00 p.m. it started to smell like gasoline. The entire floor was full of diesel. There is a gas station in the same area. We started to get very nervous. We warned so that no one smoked. Some comments were heard like ‘if this explodes we won’t tell anyone about it’. It was scary,” he declares.The interior of the building with the sound of the ABC alarmA night in the “mousetrap” of the Riba-roja industrial estateDue to the floods, hundreds of workers had to spend the night at the Riba-roja industrial estate. The mayor of the municipality himself, Robert Raga, has described the place as a “mousetrap”. “It is a very dramatic situation,” he confirmed to ‘Europa Press’. Michelangelo was one of the people who was locked in his office. The young man tells ABC what these moments were like: «We had what we could for dinner. We try to calm ourselves down. Finally the water ran out of the hall and there were people who looked outside to see what was there. Everything was blocked by sticks and cars. We were able to deactivate the alarm, which was on the ground floor. The boy indicates that they tried to get some sleep, but it was completely impossible. «We put cardboard on the floor and the backpack as a pillow. You could hear the car alarms, screams of people who were looking for other people. “It was very cold,” he says. Between 2:00 a.m. and 3:00 a.m., the Civil Guard arrived at this industrial estate in Valencia. «We informed them and they told us not to go out because we were safe there, that they would pick us up in the morning. While they were checking if there were victims. Several companions helped them,” he says. After a tragic and long night, Miguel Ángel points out that at 6:30 a.m. the sun began to rise. «There was some light and we decided to go down. We found everything in a quagmire, cars destroyed… », he maintains.Images from the day after the DANA passed through the Riba-roja ABC industrial estateHowever, it was not until 11:00 a.m. when the authorities rescued them. «We got on a bus and they took us to Riba-roja to a center they had set up. They gave us water, cookies and clothes. They also wrote down our personal information,” says the young man. From there, they were transferred at 4:00 p.m. to the Manises sports center, but they also had no way of getting to Valencia. Finally, they walked to Paterna. «It was a 40-minute walk. All this without sleeping and without eating almost anything, of course,” he laments. More than 24 hours later and being a direct witness of one of the greatest catastrophes of the century, Miguel Ángel says that his cousin was able to pick him up in this last municipality and that at He arrived home at 7:00 p.m. This 26-year-old Valencian man was lucky enough to find himself in a seven-story building when DANA arrived in Riba-roja. He took shelter and was able to protect himself. However, he will never be able to forget the events he experienced: «It was a very tense situation. You could hear the crashes of cars, you were cold, you had pain all over your body. I slept today, but I’m still tired. You are thinking about the tragedy all the time. I was going to leave and I was going to leave with the car. I could have been trapped. “You’re scared. You see people outside who can’t get out. You want to help, but you can’t because the flood is in the way. “It is a feeling of helplessness,” he reflects.
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