We’re driving by means of the beleaguered city of Algemesi and Sam Borras Garcia is on the wheel, guiding us by means of a panorama of destruction and desperation.
You may’t miss our automotive – huge, muscular, shiny yellow and pink. Sam is a firefighter, a son of this city. He needs the world to see what Algemesi has suffered.
We’re waved by means of a police roadblock and drive into the city. The one different automobiles listed here are both emergency companies, or else they’re smashed automobiles. “It’s incredible,” he mutters as we enter. “This is my town, my family, my friends.”
As he edges around the roads, the automotive can barely squeeze between the rising piles of garbage on both facet. Now we have to keep away from giant, gaping holes within the highway the place drain covers have been washed away. Periodically, he stops to consolation locals, to greet pals and provide recommendation.
He was on responsibility the night time of the floods, and it is sort of a scar in his reminiscence. He blows out as he remembers.
“The day when the rain came was very crazy,” he tells me. “People called my phone, crying, saying ‘I’m going to die, I’m going to die, help us, help us’. It was very traumatic. This whole night was traumatic.”
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Algemesi has been left devastated
He informed me he labored for round 36 hours in a row after the floods got here, with no meals and no break: “I am so tired. So many hours working. It’s very hard.”
However he retains going, even when he takes off his uniform. Algemesi, this ruined city, is his house, and he feels invested in serving to it to get well.
“I need to help these people. Yes, it’s my work but when I stop my official work, I stay here and I ask – what do you need? Do you need help, do you need water, do you need people to clean? When I clean my house and help my family, I also try to help these other people.”
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Sam Borras Garcia labored for about 36 hours in a row
Alongside the streets, there’s a sense of camaraderie, of a united objective. It’s cheering to see and really feel. He is stuffed with reward for the hundreds of volunteers who gave up their weekends, descending on this city, and lots of others, to clear mud and help probably the most susceptible victims.
However once we cease on the entrance to an underground automotive park, it’s merely horrible – the odor horrible, the ambiance darkish and ominous. Everybody is aware of that many victims of this flood died in automotive parks like this one.
“When the water comes in, it’s impossible to get out with the car,” says Sam. “The water is too strong. When you try to fight against it, it’s impossible.”
We peer into the darkness.
“It’s possible that we will find some people who died in their cars. People who were trying to save their cars, and died.”
It’s, I counsel, a imaginative and prescient like a horror story. Sam shakes his head.
“It’s not like a horror story,” he says wistfully. “It is a horror story. And this smell – the engines, the oils, the petroleum, the debris. This is the smell of a horror story.”
He worries that this might occur once more, that there’s nothing to say that the identical climate situations couldn’t have an effect on the identical river. So, I ponder, what are the teachings that Spain ought to be taught.
Firstly, he thinks there must be a strategy to elevate the alarm faster – to inform folks of the hazard that’s approaching and to present them extra time to get away. To offer clearer directions.
However secondly, and possibly there’s a lesson for all of us right here, it’s the necessity to put life above possessions. He says that on the night time of the floods, he spoke to folks on the cellphone who refused to depart their automobiles.
“People have to learn these things – in this situation forget your car, forget your house, forget your things – in this situation you have to save your life, and your families, your parents and your old neighbour who can’t walk. That is more important than your car.”
