At the door of the house Laura In Paiporta there hangs a silver sign that reads Bon Nadal (Merry Christmas). As soon as you enter, in the hall, there are several perfectly wrapped gifts and, a little further, next to the frame of a door broken by water, a small fir tree with paper decorations. In the living room, her daughter sira He plays with a neighbor and with Coco, his dog. Sira is seven years old and wears Jack Skellington pajamas, the character from ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas’. Those pajamas, that nightmare before Christmas, when Laura tells what they went through together with Dana seems ironic. How no one warned (“when the first alarm came the water was already very high, there were already drowned people”) and they found out what was happening through the videos posted on social networks and the messages sent by neighbors. How he barely had time to return home with Sira (“there were those who didn’t arrive, my neighbor said goodbye to his wife thinking that she wouldn’t survive”), how he They took refuge in a neighbor’s attic when the water already reached above their ankles.
From there they saw how it dragged the cars, how they heard the screams of people asking for help. The power went out, their cell phones ran out of battery. Romanher husband, who works outside of Paiporta, could not get home that night. In the morning, the entrances to the building were blocked by cars destroyed and washed away by the water, which had flooded both floors of the garage. Everything was mud and reeds, remains of vehicles and junk. “It was scary,” he says, “you can’t believe you’re living that.”
A few days later his guardian angels appeared in the form of Madrid firefighters. One of them, Vincententer at that moment with churros and chocolate. Dylanthe little neighbor with whom Sira played, throws himself into his arms. He adores him. Vicente has come to spend these days with what is now his family here. They met that fifth day after the dana.
volunteer firefighters
Vicente, the firefighter
Vicente and his companions from Parque Noveno, in the Pilar neighborhood, upon seeing the tragedy (“on the 30th we already saw the magnitude of all this”) and since the City Council did not mobilize them, they decided come on your own as volunteers. With money from their pocket, donations from friends and acquaintances to buy material, their own free days invested and three vans, they left Madrid and arrived in Paiporta. To Laura’s building. They were shoveling mud and helping neighbors for days. While they share sweets and talk, with a Santa Claus on the table, little Dylan does not leave him, sitting on his legs and asking him not to leave. “We have become very friends, he is now my nephew,” says Vicente excitedly. That’s why he came here again just before Christmas, this time with gifts instead of shovelsbecause these are dates to spend with family. “And I’ll come back later to continue helping,” he says. “There is still a lot to do here.”
Different holiday
They corroborate it Marcos and Arnau, who came from Barcelona the first days and are still here, still working today on the minus two level of one of the garages that are still bogged down. The owner of the company unblocking The company they work for sent two teams with trucks (“we left work there and came where we were needed”). Today they continue removing mud. No one has yet reached some of the lowest levels. “We don’t know what we’ll find there,” he says. «The pressure of the water burst walls and doors. “The mud reached the ceiling.” Marcos admits that he has never cried in his entire life as much as he has done here since he arrived. Only, perhaps, when his six-year-old daughter, whom he will see again in a few days for the holidays, told him that she asked Santa Claus to In Paiporta everything would be as usual again. “Now people are starting to be more sensitive again, with Christmas,” adds Arnau. «At first, when we arrived, they looked like zombies, they were walking down the street overwhelmed, asking for help. They didn’t know very well what was happening, you met them and they weren’t very aware of what was happening. Then, little by little, it became normal. But this is going to cost a lot.
Laura, resident of Paiporta
«They are going to be some Very strange Christmas explains Laura, delighted to have Vicente at home. “But there are children and, for them, we have to do whatever it takes.” And it is true that here it is a different Christmas than any other. Different, strange and sad. The mud is still present, there is barely any green left. The damage is numerous. A single, large tree miraculously remains standing, in the middle of the Poyo ravine. Someone has decorated it with a large Spanish flag and lights.
At his feet, in letters formed with stones, you can read “Paiporta.” All around is mud. A little further on, on the remains of what must have been a balustrade, a virgin painted pink appears surrounded by lit candles, the remains of wax from the candles that preceded these. The Paiporta Primitive Band, under a large Christmas tree in front of the Municipal Athenaeum, decorated with paper stars that have been sent from schools throughout Spain, sing White Christmas and the Drummer. The Christmas carols resonate, further away paellas are prepared for the neighbors, hot chocolate is served, a José Andrés dressed as Santa Claus gives the small gifts, hundreds of which have arrived here thanks to the initiative of some friends, ‘A Christmas Tree by dana’, which began by collecting and delivering Christmas trees, more than 700. The atmosphere is festive but there is a shadow in the suspended dust, in the faces of the people, in the destroyed facades and the volunteers, in their white overalls, who continue to arrive to help with whatever is necessary.
In the constant presence of the military and health workers, and in line to pick up a package of cereal, two bottles of water or a loaf of bread. “Today we added dried figs,” he says, smiling. Marise Garcia«because here it is something very typical of these dates. And on Christmas Eve we will also be here, and on Christmas Day. And there will be nougat. Marisé has been coming since the first day with her foundation ‘Ayuda Una Familia’, dedicated to bringing hot food and food basics to those who need them. They insist there is still a lot of need here. The endless queue corroborates his words. They occupy a destroyed premises that before the disaster was a travel agency. The owner found them distributing groceries next to the Auditorium on a rainy day, soaked, and offered them shelter there to continue helping. No one had given them a place but they continued doing their work. And since then they have been under that roof with rickety shutters.
“A bad dream”
Laura was also in that line. «At first we had nothing, not even water. It was like a war, a bad dream. I saw myself leaving the house with wellies and a rod, because you didn’t know where you were stepping,” he says. And then he has been living day to day, adapting to the needs of the moment, to solve what was urgent. «At first you couldn’t get out because of the mud and destruction, you had to wait in line to pick up a plate of hot food. And I saw myself in that situation and I couldn’t even believe it, that it was real,” he says. «I had to stand in line to get a bottle of drinking water, because we had nothing, no electricity, no water, no food. My feeling is that we have lived a war and we are now in a postwar. “Many people have lost their livelihoods, others have lost loved ones, many small businesses will not be able to reopen… It is a disaster.” But she prefers to keep the best of what has been experienced here.
«The solidarity has been brutal. People from all over Spain have come to help us with their hands and their own resources. When it is said that the people save the people it is a great truth. The people have saved us. No one had come and the volunteers arrived, walking through the mud, to bring us what we needed, which was all because Paiporta had been razed,” he gets emotional. How she gets excited while placing a paper ornament with her daughter’s name, Sira, on the tree and says: “I’m trying to make sure my daughter has a Christmas that’s as similar as possible to a normal holiday, to those he had last year. “May you not miss a moment of excitement.”
#Paiportas #sad #strange #Christmas #Dana #live #postwar #period
