Trapped, incommunicado and witnesses of death: the traumatic experiences of those affected by DANA

1. Trapped in a polygon in Valencia

Dozens of workers have been locked in their business Tuesday night without being able to go out, much less return home. “The night has been horrible,” Leyre, the employee of a store located in the Massanassa commercial area (Valencia), who spent the night with the rest of her colleagues, tells ABC. with water up to the waist. It was not until approximately nine in the morning when they were able to leave, although in the case of Leyre without the possibility of returning to his house, since the accesses and exits to the city of Valencia, where he resides, continue to be cut off for the moment.

2. They survive on the terrace of a gas station

Irene, a resident of Alfafar, in Valencia, has been able to locate her father and uncle after not hearing anything from them since eight o’clock on Tuesday. «I only knew that the water caught them and that They were on top of a gas station», he reported on RNE this Wednesday. Finally he has learned that his relatives are “safe and sound”, although as they themselves have told him: “It has been a traumatic night and they have survived as best they could.”

«Thanks to a boy electrician they managed to make a kind of ladder and climb to the terrace of the gas station. From there they have saved two other people who were trapped with some ropes or cables that they obtained. They spent the entire night there, as best they could, outdoors, until three or four in the morning. They have witnessed human losses“Nothing could be done for the people downstairs because you couldn’t get off from the gas station, everything was flooded,” explained Irene, who assures that, after the events, her father and uncle “are traumatized.”

3. The residents of Paiporta try to rescue a woman with sheets

Dozens of neighbors in Paiporta, Valencia, tried to rescue a woman in her 70s who was being swept away by the flood. They threw sheets at him from his windows so he could hold on, but the speed of the water made it impossible, leaving one of the most dramatic images of the DANA. The woman lived with her husband, about whom nothing is known either.

4. They are looking for two civil guards and the girlfriend of one of them trapped in the Paiporta barracks

Two civil guards and the girlfriend of one of them were trapped on Tuesday night in the flooded basement of the barracks of the Benemérita in Paiporta, Valencia. According to ‘Las Provincias’, after midnight it was not possible to access the flooded area, although the basement of the barracks – they point out – is watertight and is below the water level. Previously, another colleague tried to enter the place with a private car and had to be rescued when he was surprised by the rising water.

5. Rescued with her pets thanks to the help of her neighbors

Javier, a resident of Utiel, in Valencia, told RNE this Wednesday how he helped a woman to be rescued with her pets. As he explained, he could not leave where he was, an interior wooden house, and asked his neighbors for help to signal a helicopter that was combing the area. “Them we made signs with colored handkerchiefs and in the end they managed to see it. The helicopter came and took her away. The woman, as far as we know, is fine, and the animals too,” he noted.

6. An elderly couple, without electricity or coverage since last night

An elderly couple is practically incommunicado in the apartment where they live in Benetúser, Valencia, as confirmed by their son, José Orellana, to ABC. «They were at home, on the terrace, until two in the morning that the level lowered and they began to clean. They have no light or coverage and the information that I receive is a message every three hours,” he said. Relatives explain that they have been informed that they are evacuating the population of the area because a new flood is expected. “The Civil Guard is warning door to door,” he indicated. José has urged his parents to stay home and not try to go out.

7. Trapped in the Ford factory

Hundreds of workers have spent the night at the Ford factory in Almufases, in Valencia. At six in the morning they were notified that they were going to be evacuated, but as ABC has learned through the testimony of an employee of the factory itself, none of the buses that the company floats left Ford yesterday. «About 400 people have spent the night in the dining room. “Sleep, what we call sleep, we have not slept,” he tells this newspaper. Last night the employees themselves distributed water to those who were trapped, as well as yogurt and fruits that were in the refrigerator in the dining room.