Chiva is one of the critical points of the DANA catastrophe. The Poyo ravine crosses the municipality and its flow experienced a flash flood as a result of the torrential rains upstream: “It began to overflow at 1:30 p.m. and at 3:00 p.m. this was already chaos. “No one notified us of anything until the message arrived on our cell phones after 8:00 p.m., when we were already sheltered in our neighbor’s house.”
José Ángel Pérez, 45 years old, lived in a ground-floor house on a street that borders the ravine and thus describes the rapid rise of the water. According to him, he was with his five children and when the building began to flood they were able to escape through “a side door that leads to the stairs of the building.” He states that they have lost “everything” and that they are currently staying in a hotel paid for by the City Council. Regarding their needs and the role of politicians, the message is clear: “They are all scoundrels, we need resources, more army personnel, with 500 there is not even a start. They don’t stop removing people with excavators, there will be 2,000 cars in the industrial park and it is not known how many dead.”
As elDiario.es has verified in situ, the situation of the municipality is critical in terms of destruction, but it is somewhat more controlled than in the affected areas of l’Horta Sud. The City Council organizes the volunteers in the town hall square and distribute food, water, masks or wellies. Also different associations, such as the Torico de Chiva peña, hold popular meals at different points for neighbors, security forces or volunteers.
However, the trace of devastation is evident in the surroundings of the ravine, in the area around the church and in the La Pahílla industrial estate, where the cleaning, clearing of debris and removal of completely destroyed vehicles are focused.
Isabel Mora’s mother, 42 years old, lived in a house that overlooked the street next to the ravine. The part of the street next to his house has disappeared and so has the house: “There is no house, there is half a house, the facade, but there is no house. It started to rain a lot, my mother was very worried because it was leaking. I went down to help her around 4:00 p.m. and soon the ravine was overflowing. I told my mother, who is 79 years old, to leave or we would drown. My mother didn’t want to leave, but I took her by the arm, took her to the car and ran out. I don’t even know how we were able to get out, the water was up to the window. We went to my house with my children, we live in an urbanization that is higher. “I don’t even know how we’re alive.”
The Military Emergency Unit (UME) began this Friday the tasks of tracing survivors and cleaning, from the area of the business park and the ravine, where numerous cars were dragged from the A-3 highway. The panorama at the access to the industrial site is dantesque. Streets full of mud and vehicles of all kinds, including trucks, overturned on the sidelines. Several army units were busy cleaning the most damaged streets and warehouses with heavy machinery.
The electricity and water supply has been restored in the urban center since Friday night, although there are still occasional service cuts. Miguel Ángel Bolinches and Alicia Orozco are the owners of Mosquistop. They have 25 workers and a huge warehouse full of mud, machinery and material that has become useless: “We estimate damages valued at one million euros. A part of the mountain above the ship fell away, leaving a huge hole through which all the water and the neighborhood, even an entire tree, entered. Here we have more than 60 volunteers from all over helping to clean up. “We need means, an excavator and machinery to remove all the waste.”
The Chiva City Council insisted that it continues to need diesel and cleaning supplies such as brooms, shovels or brooms. Among the priorities in aid, they urge to restore the electricity supply in the Olimar urbanization. The Solana well also needs repair because it is still damaged and is working thanks to generator sets that are failing periodically. In addition, he expressed his enormous gratitude to all the troops, both volunteers and the army and security forces, who are coming en masse to help.
Intoxicated volunteers
A total of 19 volunteers were poisoned by carbon monoxide, two of them seriously, in a garage in the Valencian town of Chiva while they were carrying out cleaning work due to the effects caused by dana.
Sources from the Civil Guard reported that the event occurred around 2:30 p.m. in a garage located on Ramón y Cajal street in the town, apparently due to poor combustion in a drain pump motor. Some of those affected have had to be treated at the Chiva health center.
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