Two in the afternoon passes in Chiva and the crowd of volunteers from the town – and those coming from many other places – begin to put down their brooms to sit down to eat. A bullfighting club prepares hot dishes all day long. The City Hall cannot store more food and clothing. The worst has happened, but the sinkhole in the middle of the main avenue and the trail of destruction on the rambla that divides this Valencian municipality in two show the fury with which the water It destroyed everything in its path. One of the houses located next to the river – now without bridges – has the height at which the flow reached marked on its façade: 1.98 meters. The screams asking for passage to ambulances and Civil Guard cars break the well-deserved rest in the street. 19 residents who were drawing water from an underground garage were poisoned by the carbon monoxide released by the bilge pump. The doctors at the health center come quickly with oxygen masks. One of the volunteers has a seizure and is transferred to the Manises hospital, after being stabilized, along with seven others. Four of those affected had been discharged at the close of this edition. Image of the riverbed in the Valencian town of Chiva EPIt is the bitterest face of a solidarity effort that has been advanced to the authorities. «Five days have passed. Professionals and heavy machinery are needed. Civil Guard and firefighters, yes. But we have seen few soldiers,” says Laura at the doors of what was her clothing store. With other family and friends, she washes all the clothes she has been able to rescue from the mud to send them to other municipalities in DANA’s ground zero. “We will cling to whatever aid there is,” he explains with resignation. Meanwhile, at the doors of the church, an army with rakes and rags removes the mud from the temple. After days without electricity or mobile coverage, drinking water has returned to the urban center, which speeds up cleaning tasks and queues for the drums installed on the street with water suitable for drinking. Image of the residents of Chiva cleaning clothes from a store affected by the flood TONI JIMÉNEZ “There is not much pressure, but those on the fifth floor of the property can now shower on the first,” says a woman. The traffic of tractors with trailers loaded with debris is continuous. Also that of helicopters that fly over the area. «We are self-coordinating. I miss uniformed officers who know how to manage a catastrophe like this. “Professionals who have experience in crises and can direct us,” says Fernando. The Military Emergency Unit arrived at the municipal area on Friday and began tracking down survivors and cleaning the industrial estate to which many cars traveling on A-3 were dragged. . This Saturday they could be seen taking measurements and checking the sewers in the center of town. With the death toll yet to be updated – there were seven on Friday – there is still concern about the situation of urbanizations that have finally been accessible. Image of the residents of Chiva cleaning the local church EPIn the logistics or the examination of Retired civil guards from all over Spain also collaborate in the vehicles to check that there are no deaths. “We have the knowledge and we have to take advantage of it,” says Lucía Llano, president of RAGSE. “In the first days, the lack of uniformed professionals has been noticed,” he acknowledges. But the work of his colleagues stands out. Some agents work a double shift: they come in plainclothes and then leave to do their duty. Despite the disaster, in the neighborhood located in the lower part of Chiva they feel lucky. “We have been left with nothing, but we still say that we have been lucky,” says a neighbor. The house across the street from his has already had to be demolished. The excavator is still there, because many others are at risk of suffering the same fate. It also happens on the banks of the river, where the fall of the facades has left some homes bare. “Don’t worry, the roof is going to fall,” warns a young woman to an older man who wants to enter a damaged building. “I don’t live here, I’m at my brother’s house,” the man reassures her, as he waits impatiently for an engineer to clarify the future of what was his home.
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