Rozalén begins to sing a lullaby. His voice accompanies the sound of the wind that sneaks between destroyed buildings in the Old Town of Letur. “My child is sleepy, bless him.” Then, the image of a baby, named Fran. He was born on November 9, twelve days after a flood devastated this part of the emblematic town of Albacete.
It’s quite a metaphor. Letur wants to be reborn. After the tragedy that claimed six lives in the small mountain municipality, “hope always makes its way.” It is part of a “very emotional” campaign, aimed at the residents of this town, under the slogan ‘Letur Renace’.
Pablo Cuervo-Arango is a director at the local company Cantero de Letur. That day, October 29, 2024, he went to pick up his children from school. “The flood occurred at 1:31 p.m. and I went to pick them up at ten to two. The school is 30 meters from ground zero. Imagine… All the children crying, without really knowing what was happening.”
At the company, he remembers, “we lost a co-worker and his wife. I saw how the water went against his house. “I called him, without being aware of the seriousness… We have had a very bad time.”
The inhabitants of the center have been able to return to their homes on December 23. But some houses no longer exist. The water took them away. Thirteen were completely destroyed and 22 were damaged. In Letur, electricity and water have been recovered little by little. “These days, in addition to the necessary material reconstruction, it is essential to take care of the emotional aspect,” says Mayor Sergio Marín.
The mayor leaves a message of hope. “We are showing that we are capable of rising up and we also do so thinking about the next generations. Without a doubt, the arrival of the first baby after DANA in our town is a great joy.”
Something the businessman agrees on. “When we realized the magnitude of the tragedy, we thought we had to do everything we could to lend a hand. “We want to be there until the end.” They have begun by “transmitting a message of hope and unity of people. “We want to transfer it to all of Spain.”
They have used their contacts with a well-known advertising agency Señora Rushmore, which collaborates “selflessly” and their own neighbor, the singer-songwriter Rozalén from Albacete, to put it into practice.
“It has been exciting to see how everyone has turned out. Also from the beginning, the administrations collaborated in searching for the missing and removing debris… The volunteers who removed mud, anonymous companies contributed food, utensils, collaborated with money… It has been amazing,” says the businessman.
A foundation to help in the reconstruction
Now Cantero de Letur is in the process of creating a foundation – they were already considering it before the flood – and now they will make it a reality to contribute to the “reconstruction.”
They will do it in a very practical way because the recovery will be “long”, although the fact that ‘ground zero’ can now be accessed, he says, “is a start to normality. It has even been possible to celebrate a mass. “You couldn’t access the church, although it was not affected.”
The local priest, Ignacio Requena, has joined the campaign and asks the entire town to unite. “From all the disasters and from all the bad things we have to get something good.”
Pablo Cuervo-Arango also focuses on the fact that Letur’s “identity sign” has been destroyed. “All business activity, businesses that make a living from rural tourism and hospitality, which is an important part, are not being able to work.”
We want to do many things, focused on housing and those people who have lost the most. Some houses will not be able to be rebuilt
Pablo Cuervo-Arango
— Director of the company Cantero de Letur
In 2022 Cantero de Letur launched the project Letur Repuebla to attract new neighbors to a municipality that does not reach 1,000 inhabitants. A building with 10 homes was built for those people interested in moving to the town and “teleworking.”
“We managed to bring 30 people, 13 of them minors, with their own jobs. The houses are still occupied,” he explains. Now the initiative will be different after what happened almost two months ago. “We want to do many things, focused on housing and those people who have lost the most. Some houses will not be able to be rebuilt,” he acknowledges. That is why several possibilities are being considered, related precisely to possible housing solutions. “Letur has always had housing problems and now even more so.”
Elena Navarro, one of the affected neighbors, believes that Letur “will heal” and that she will do so “with more strength.” “We will return to being what we have always been, a beautiful town, a welcoming town, a town where all the people who come fall in love.”
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