Testimonies from the epicentre of the devastation of the DANA in Catarroja and Masanasa
Walking through the avenues, streets and squares of many of the towns in the Huerta Sur of Valencia is to contemplate homes, premises, shops, businesses, companies and factories devastated and flooded by the water and mud of the huge ravine of 29 October.
Even on 3 January 2025, more than two months after the devastation caused by the devastating DANA that took the lives of more than 220 people, tens of thousands like Arturo, Gabriel, Eva, Juan, Julia, Pascual... are still struggling to turn the page and rebuild their lives. They have counted and continue to count on the help of the Armed Forces, volunteers from all over Spain and from third countries, such as the fleet of sewage trucks sent by Morocco.
At ground zero of the devastation is Paiporta and, a short distance from its urban centre, are Alfafar, Benetuser, Sedaví, Catarroja and Masanasa, all of them at the epicentre of the disaster, municipalities where their residents are still living with the bitterness of the disaster but with their sights set on the future.
But Masanasa, with around 10,000 inhabitants, and Catarroja, with a population of more than 30,000 people, are unique. It is the final stretch of the now sadly notorious Barranco del Poyo ravine - which in both towns is known as the Chiva ravine - which flows into the Albufera lake, just 3 kilometres below. The ravine itself separates the two municipalities and its bed is dry most of the year. But on the afternoon of 29 October a devastating waterspout of water, reeds and floating furniture swept over everything in its path.
The water and mud took over the streets of Catarroja and Masanasa in minutes. There are houses on the ground floor which, due to their location, have suffered great devastation and have left their inhabitants with nothing of use. In other parts of both towns there has been less intense damage... compared to those who have lost everything, everything, everything. Both are still waiting for the promised aid and hope that General Gan Pampols will finalise the organisational work to start rebuilding the devastated areas.
Born a second time
The offices of Juan Hernández's company in Catarroja were completely flooded by a torrent of water that reached almost to the roof. ‘I heard voices of alarm, went out into the street and saw the water running. I only had time to close the metal shutters and get home with the water already up to my heels’. He confesses that ‘all the paper documents I kept in filing cabinets have been lost and the computers are covered in mud’.
His daughter Teresa, a teacher at Larrodé school, knowing what was coming, took her car out of an underground car park and left it in the street. She returned home to a fifth-floor flat and watched the floods evolve. The next day, when she arrived at the school, she was shaking her head. ‘The infant classrooms, screens, desks and chairs were destroyed, and the dining room and kitchens were in pieces’. With everyone's efforts, Larrodé School has now started classes but, to date, no matter how hard she has searched, Teresa has still not found the whereabouts of her car, which she considers destroyed and lost.
Arturo García almost lost his life in Catarroja. When he saw the torrent, he tried to get his car out of the underground car park of his estate in Catarroja, which housed around a hundred cars. ‘I was saved by a miracle. I saw the enormous force of the water and escaped up the stairs’. He later found out that at least two of his neighbours had drowned in the same vehicle.
When Arturo was finally able to enter his muddy car park, he found his car upright, leaning against a pillar, its nose embedded in half a metre of packed mud and its rear end wedged against the roof. He says that ‘it took more than two weeks to get it out onto the street’. He highlights the efforts of the firefighters from Dos Hermanas (Seville), Zaragoza and the Marine Infantry Teams, the Air Force, the UME, the Royal Guard and the Army Engineering Command with heavy machinery.
Gabriel Alfonso and María José Borrás were in their recently built house in Calle de los Remedios in Masanasa. Alerted by neighbours, they noticed how the water began to rise above the kerb. ‘I blocked the door of the house with blankets and put up a couple of sacks of plaster that I had left over from the building site to absorb the water,’ recalls Gabriel. ‘It was a saint's hand, because I only managed to get about half a metre of water and mud that ran down the street, but enough to spoil several pieces of furniture and penetrate several built-in wardrobes’.
Steps as parapets
Tastefully renovated and decorated, Eva and Vicente's house in Masanasa has been badly affected. With doors opening onto two streets, the water flooded in, destroyed the kitchen and washed away all the stylish furniture on the ground floor: armchairs, sofas, chairs... In Raúl Barberá and Cristina's house, half a metre of water and mud has ruined the kitchen, electronic equipment, built-in wardrobes, household goods, books...
The couple, Encarnita and Pascual, were alerted by neighbours to the flooding of the ravine. Looking out of a window, they saw a torrent of water flowing past their front door, which fortunately did not ascend the five steps leading to their home. But their garage was flooded to the top, burying their cars in water and mud. Julia Olmos's television suddenly went off, her mobile phone stopped working and when she looked out onto the balcony she discovered that the water was running down the street. The several steps leading up to her home acted as a parapet, but not her garage, which was flooded.
Alfafar is next to Masanasa and has also suffered from the ravine. Jose Vicente Bauxaulí has seen how his ground floor was filled with 2.70 metres of water. ‘My car and my wife's car floated and almost touched the roof’. The pharmacy of his nephews, Rosendo and Inmaculada Baixaulí, ‘was also flooded, but they have worked hard to be able to open a week after the disaster and dispense medicines to the neighbours’. ‘By the way, in the floods in Valencia in 1957, not a drop of water entered Alfafar, and I know that in Masanasa either,’ he points out.
The ravine did not even respect the pantheons and niches in the cemeteries. The Alfafar cemetery is still closed because, given its location, it has received the full onslaught of the overflowing water. In Masanasa, some 800 metres from the town, I am told that ‘the destructive wave has reached the second niches and has caused tombstones to break and other considerable damage’.
Today, the dried mud along the pavements, the clouds of dust raised by passing vehicles, the large metal containers full of smashed belongings and objects, ruined furniture and electronic equipment dripping with mud bear witness to the magnitude of what has happened. As evidenced by the hundreds of military personnel who continue to extract cars from the underground garages.
Less visible from a national and international news point of view are the complementary effects caused by the DANA of 29 October in the region of La Ribera Alta: up to eight tornadoes. Alginet, 20 kilometres from Catarroja, suffered some of them. Brothers Salvador and César Comes say that one of them destroyed the roof, the farmyard and the terrace of their mother's house, Doña Paquita. On dates as important as 24 December and 31 January, they were still repairing the enormous damage.