Almost a month after DANAresidents of municipalities affected by the storm in Valencialike Benetússer, still They tour the car ‘cemeteries’ where they pile up by the dozens in search of their vehicle, a mission equivalent to “looking for a needle in a haystack.”
This has been confirmed these days by Manuel Rubio, 65 years old, who He has moved from his townMotilla del Palancar (Cuenca), to search for your cara Peugeot-407 that DANA took on October 29 in Benetússer, where he was spending a few days after his son’s wedding.
He, who is an inspector of ITV by profession and collector of vintage cars, tour these days the car ‘cemeteries’ of the municipality where part of what remains of the 120,000 vehicles that have been removed throughout the affected area after the catastrophe lie stacked in floors up to three heights. He is accompanied by his son Samuel Rubio (38), who lives in Barcelona, and a family friend, Javier Castellanos (38).
“My father I was worried about the car all the time24 hours a day, my mother called me: that dad doesn’t sleep, that he dreams about water, that I don’t know how many… Then we are trying to look for his car, which is going to be impossible,” says Samuel. In addition to Because of the things he had inside – a phone, some keys, documentation, clothes and a suitcase – Manuel would like to see his car to know your statusafter seeing how “a beastly current” carried him away on the night of October 29.
“Until today I’m not the same anymore“I don’t think the same anymore, I have a mental psychosis,” says Manuel when remembering those days. He points out that he managed to leave for his town with a volunteer three days after the storm, on Friday, because in Benetússer there was no food, water, electricity or gas.
“Until the Friday when I left, I didn’t see a civil guard, firefighters, police, a tractor, or a machine… I only saw the volunteers when they came the next day (…) with a broom and dustpan to help, but we were totally abandoned“, he recalls.
A car almost paid for and a stuffed animal saved
A few meters from them, Alba Tatay – 33 years old, a native of Benetússer and with a little more luck – meets her car for the first time after almost a month and a call from the municipality’s Local Police. “I knew there was nothing to rescuebut I needed to see him a little, the truth is, he left and I hadn’t seen him,” says the young Valencian woman, excited.
In his vehicle, which turned three years old in June, when I was finally going to pay it offhe finds, among other objects, some glasses and a snorkel. “I have rescued this, which is stupid, but I am going to wash it, it is a stuffed animal that I have carried in all my cars (…) and some sunglasses,” he says. Her car was parked under her house when the water came and, although Alba made a move to grab the keys to try to save it, when she saw the water rising in a matter of minutes, she “let it be.”
“I saw how the water pushed him and then from my window, which faces another street, I still saw him pass, that is, I know more or less the route he took the car, then I also saw it in videos that people uploaded (…) but I didn’t find it, I had been here on different days and I hadn’t seen it,” says this neighbor.
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