The ferocity of the flood has exposed the privacy of many homes on the banks of the Poyo Rambla as it passes through the center of Chiva. There are stairs that no longer lead anywhere and mailboxes full of letters. Its recipients, at least, can tell it. «If you open the door and put your foot inside, you will fall into the ravine»says Juan Antonio, pointing to one of the houses at the end of his street. What remains of that property and the adjacent one will have to be demolished. “Let’s hope it stays there,” this baker explains to ABC, lamenting for his neighbors. Demolitions have also occurred in other neighborhoods. He has also not been able to access his apartment, which has been sealed since that fateful October 29 marked by DANA. He is one of the 130 evicted in the Valencian town.
The municipality’s hotels immediately mobilized to respond to the emergency and offered their facilities free of charge. The Red Cross also set up a shelter at the institute. As has happened with so many other needs, housing has been managed through the solidarity of the people and without coordination with higher administrations. The Generalitat assures that they are working to establish a protocol that allows them to use the establishments that have been made available by the tourism sector.
«My farm has cracks and they don’t know if they are going to get worse. “The day of the flood they took me out of the house with a rope.”
However, the majority of those affected have not made use of the resources activated by different cases, although the one that is most repeated is having found refuge in the closest environment. It has also happened, for example, with twenty people evicted from six houses in Paiporta. Being in a hotel or shelter, although it is a relief in the first instance, “multiplies the feeling of vulnerability.” “The support network and family ties can offer more intimacy, something that It is essential to recover», says Conchi Navarro, Red Cross psychologist.
Despite this, with each passing day the anxiety due to the bureaucratic tangle that can come upon us increases. «They kicked us out because it was not safe. Luckily I have an apartment in Valencia. I come and go every day to be able to reactivate my business as soon as possible. We have to repair the machines that were damaged by the water,” says the owner of the El Puente oven while cleaning the workshop with family and workers. Among the latter, there is Norma. They both live in different properties on a narrow street in Chiva, right in front of the bakery.
Waiting for what the technicians decide, Norma She lives in the house of friends who have welcomed her.. «I’m better there. My farm has cracks and they don’t know if they are going to get worse. We left with what we were wearing and we couldn’t go up to get anything for safety reasons. The day of the flood they pulled me out with a rope so I could cross the street and get to my neighbor’s house,” he tells ABC. Irene, the aforementioned, corroborates this while waiting for a tow truck to remove her car from the garage.
Encouraged to rebuild
At the moment, they have not requested aid. «Let’s see what the technicians and the insurance tell us. “We have to wait a few days,” says Juan Antonio. Nor does Norma want to think about looking for a rental, in the midst of a brutal housing supply crisis and with very high prices. The back of the building he calls home features a gaping hole visible from the town’s only standing bridge.
Image of the destruction on the farm where Norma lives in Chiva (Valencia)
The high flow dragged even pine trees and put them inside the homes. Chance has it that, a little further on, on a corner of the boulevard. Fátima’s parents’ home has passed the technical inspection with flying colors, allowing them to reoccupy it. She and Juanma, her husband, have not been so lucky, although they consider themselves privileged. They have saved their lives, they say excitedly, and they already know that they will be able to return to their home, located in an urbanization a few minutes walk from the center of Chiva.
An elevated, non-floodable area of the municipal area that became “a lake.” The same architect who designed the property two years ago, with the particularity of being built with maritime containers, has confirmed that the structure has not been damaged. Of course, nothing has been saved from the interior.
“We have always said that if we had to go out running one day, we would take the photos and our wallet,” says Fátima. With water up to his waist, Juanma also managed to save his two dogs and his wife’s guitar. A friend returned the few clothes they managed to collect from the mud, washed and ironed. Another friend has given them the house of his mother, who recently died. They have already moved there after spending a few days in Fátima’s sister’s apartment.
Image of the damage caused by the flood in the house of Fátima and Juanma, in Chiva (Valencia). The level that the water reached can also be seen on the wall.
«Tonight is the one I have slept the most since everything happened. Four hours,” he points out. “On Tuesday, a week later, I was able to sit on a couch,” Juanma jokes. «We have cried a lot, but we have work and that is very important to be able to start again. It will take us a month or five years to rebuild our house, but we are going to do it. Having a network has saved us all,” they agree, while a friend’s son helps them dismantle the countertop and kitchen cabinets. They have already called a farmer from the town to come with the trailer to collect everything.
Available Resources
Local businessmen
The small hotel establishments located in zone zero of the DANA, and that have not suffered damage, have made their rooms available to the City Councils to be able to accommodate evicted families or whose housing is not in sanitary conditions.
Red Cross shelters
Despite the initial deployment, the Red Cross only keeps two centers open, as the number of occupied beds has decreased. In Chiva there are two families left and in Torrent – much larger – there are 140 people left of the 700 who were treated there.
Hotels and apartments
The Generalitat assures that they have a long list of hotels and apartments that have been made available to them. In some of them hundreds of police or firefighters have been stationed. Only four families from Catarroja – twelve adults and one baby – from a building with structural damage had requested this resource for which a protocol has not yet been established.
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