This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Jesús Lucero Ezquerro, 28, who lives in the Poblats Marítims district of Valencia, Spain.
The region has been ravaged by flash floods. Ezquerro spoke to BI on Thursday. The following has been edited for length and clarity.
I’ve lived in Valencia for four years. Everything seemed normal on Monday — literally, nothing happened.
But at 3 p.m. on Tuesday, things started getting ugly in most of the province. It was starting to rain and get very windy.
Around 7:30 p.m., we started getting texts from local authorities alerting us of heavy rains and urging us to stay home.
I said to myself: “Holy cow! But it’s not raining here.” I’m north of the river Turia in Valencia, so I wasn’t affected and it hardly rained.
I was shocked and alarmed by the images I started seeing on social media of people south of the river. People stuck in trees, people being pulled from a torrent by rope, people screaming.
I didn’t have a car or any vehicle when the storm hit, so I couldn’t do anything but stay put. I wasn’t scared as I don’t have a business to worry about and live on the fifth floor of my building.
But I was and still am worried about those affected and the innocent lives being lost. By the time the alerts came, the storm had already hit.
Back to the Middle Ages
The next day, a friend and I biked to see the damage in southern Valencia, the area most affected by the storm.
The metropolitan transport system had collapsed, the subways were flooded, and the buses could not access some areas.
Before even reaching the area, we saw trucks and cars crowded on the road south of the river alike fallen dominoes.
The streets were full of dirt, covered with mud and water. People to the south of the river had no power or signal. It was like going back to the Middle Ages.
We also helped a group of young people clear a sidewalk. We were up to our eyebrows in mud.
The police were there, but there were hardly any other emergency services in the area, as they were rescuing people who were at risk.
Friends have lost their cars. Some have garages full of water and mud that they are cleaning. I don’t know anyone close to me who died.
We returned home in a state of shock, taking it all in.
Left behind
I am frustrated and angry.
I have a background in marine environmental emergencies and forest fire management, and I now work for a company on a firebreak management and forest fire prevention project.
So, I’m not a firefighter or a member of the military, but I’ve worked on environmental emergencies from an intelligence-gathering point of view.
I know how to evacuate people, how to manage populations, and how to manage adverse situations. But that did not happen in Valencia.
Worse than Hurricane Milton
I remember watching the news of Hurricane Milton hitting Florida last month and how Floridians were preparing for it.
Residents boarded up their windows with large wooden panels; store owners were getting ready for it, and people evacuated.
The Tampa mayor even urged people to leave and said that anyone who stayed would die.
After Hurricane Milton, there were at least 16 deaths. Meanwhile, here in Valencia, it’s already about 10 times as many.
The Spanish Meteorological Agency had issued an alert days before the storm. But on Tuesday, nothing happened. There was absolute calm in the morning. People were going to work and to university. When the local alerts came, the storm was already happening.
A wake-up call
Undoubtedly, human errors were made. I’ve never seen anything like it.
In a country like Spain, with the means, agencies, and intelligence we have, it is horrible that this happened.
At a certain point, authorities were saying 50 dead, then 60, then 70, then 90. To me, that doesn’t sound like much. I believe that when the waters recede and the mud clears, more dead bodies will be found.
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