The town of Catarroja will be one of the first to face the demolition of a block of houses with structural damage caused by the DANA on October 29, which left 224 dead in the province of Valencia. Specifically, these are five of the townhouses in a complex of 40 houses located on Tribunal de las Aguas street, just 100 meters from the Poyo ravine. The demolition will take effect in a couple of weeks.
After the flood, municipal technicians and the Valencian Building Institute (IVE) carried out a first inspection and assessed the evacuation of all homes. The community of owners, however, hired an architect and a civil engineer after the flood and after various studies it was found that five of the homes have collapsed and must be demolished, and a sixth is still under study.
The situation for those affected is extreme, according to Juan Ángel, owners of one of the properties to be demolished: “We have been evicted since November 4. As they are three-story houses, when the ravine overflowed we were able to take refuge on the upper floors. But after a few days, at night, we heard a creak and the next day, when we got up, the walls were full of cracks. “So we called the firefighters and they evicted us.”
From there, Ángel has lived a true pilgrimage with his wife and two daughters, ages 6 and 12. According to him, first some friends took them in, then others left them their house while they were there. Finally, it was the company he works for that left him a home until he had a definitive solution. The problem is that the future seems complicated, since the mortgage on the house that is going to be demolished in the coming days is added to the expense of the works and their future home.
“So far the only confirmed aid we have is from the Catarroja City Council, which has confirmed to us that it will assume 50,000 euros of the 120,000 euros that the community will commit for the demolition. This is the debris removal part. So from the remaining 70,000 euros we end up with 1,750 euros per owner. Added to that is the 500 euros I pay a month for the mortgage. Although I now have it suspended, I have 85,000 euros left to pay plus whatever the new home costs me. We are looking at whether we can rebuild it right here or we have to look for something else, it will depend on the numbers,” he explains.
One of the issues that prevents them from making a forecast for the future is that they do not know the compensation that the Insurance Compensation Consortium will pay them. Ángel comments that a week ago the expert went by for the second time to confirm that the damage is caused by DANA, but that they still do not know the amount they will be paid, much less the deadlines: “We are processing several lines of aid, but at the moment We only charge the first 6,000 euros that the Generalitat provided to replace the basics,” he explains.
The loss of housing is undoubtedly one of the most extreme situations that the floods have left behind. Hundreds of families have been forced to stay in shelters or in the homes of relatives and friends, and the least have been able to opt for some of the relocation homes enabled by the Generalitat Valenciana (72 so far and it is expected to reach 300) or the from Sareb (18 and it is expected to reach 150).
According to the latest report from the Valencian Building Institute (IVIE), there are already 300 homes with demolition files, the majority in Massanassa with 39 files for partial or total demolition of their homes, followed by Picanya (33), Sedaví (28), Paiporta (24) and Chiva, (24).
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