Almost two months after the tragic DANA that caused 223 deaths on October 29, thousands of people are still unable to leave their homes as they have some degree of dependency and the elevators in their buildings remain broken.
The Paiporta City Council recently put this problem in focus in a meeting it held with the Valencian Business Confederation (CEV) in a key meeting to address the measures necessary for the recovery of the economic and business fabric after the serious effects of the flood.
The first deputy mayor, Vicent Ciscar, highlighted during his speech that one of the most urgent problems after DANA that affects the most vulnerable people, the collapse of numerous elevators due to the flooding of garages and equipment. In Paiporta alone, it is estimated that around 350 garages remain unused, affecting around 2,000 people with reduced mobility, which seriously hinders their autonomy.
Ciscar demanded speed from the Insurance Compensation Consortium and the insurers to expedite compensation payments and allow the neighborhood communities to begin the necessary repairs as soon as possible. “We cannot allow so many people to remain unable to leave their homes independently for months. It is essential that the Consortium advance the money necessary to cover 100% of the compensation urgently and that the communities can assume the initial payments and accelerate the repair work,” he noted.
In this sense, the president of the Spanish Committee of Representatives of People with Disabilities (Cermi), Luis Vaño, has commented that according to the estimates they use, of the 10,000 elevators damaged by the flood in the province of Valencia, some 6,500 are still not operational. affecting people with reduced mobility and dependent elderly people: “Although these are still estimates, we can be talking about about 5,000 people with some type of disability, dependency or reduced mobility may be affected by continuing without elevators and, therefore, without being able to leave their homes with full autonomy.”
This is the case of Antonio Gamón, 61 years old, who lives on Rector Joaquim Escrivá i Peiró street in Catarroja and who a month ago reported his case in elDiario.es: “The situation has not changed. It is true that at least both the EMU and the firefighters have already cleaned the garage of sludge, but the elevator still does not work because the insurance has not yet paid and the cost is about 22,000 euros that we may have to advance to speed up the procedures. In the end you have to take it with humor because otherwise it would end with depression, this seems like a sentence.”
Emilia Lozano lives on the floor above Antonio with her husband Adolfo Peluso, both 85 years old. Lozano explains that her husband suffered a stroke and since then he has had degree 3 dependency. He needs the help of a stroller to walk and if he leaves the house he uses a wheelchair. According to her, her husband narrowly escaped the day of DANA, since “they brought him from the day center a few minutes before everything flooded.” The doctors recommended that her husband walk “so that his muscles do not atrophy, that is why I make him walk around the house every day,” since they cannot go out.
“The problem is that family members of dependent people or those with reduced mobility cannot go out much either. I can’t leave my husband alone for a long time, I only go out to buy food and basic things and in the meantime I leave him with the red button in case something happens. Given everything that has happened, we cannot complain, but if the repair of the elevator could be accelerated it would be the best gift,” says Emilia.
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