“If they only give me the money they told me, I’ll wall up the house”

At the house of Rosa Garciathe calendar keeps ticking October 2024. Above the date on which everything stopped there is an image of the Miraculous Virgin, patron saint of the San José and San Andrés de Massanassa School where Rosa works: “The Virgin Mary kept all things in her heart,” it says just below. That calendar is the only thing that remains of what until October 29 was the house where she lived with her husband, Arturo Sauraand his two sons, Arturo and Albert.

His house is located on the ground floor of a building a just 200 meters from the Poyo ravine and when Rosa was told after 4:35 p.m. that it was filling up, she went with her son Alberto to see it. “It’s what we used to do here all our lives, it rained in October and we went to see how the water was,” he says. At that time it still had to be filled, but at 18:25 they received a warning that it was going to overflow and they went out again to check it out. They didn’t even make it to the next patio: The water was already rising and they had to retreat.

Rosa and her family, affected by the damage in the town of MassanassaKike Taberner

The first thing they did when they returned was to think about Pepita and Amparotwo neighbors of 82 and 86 years who also live alone on the ground floor of their building. The second did not want to leave her house and it was her son Alberto who ended up helping her up the stairs.

The water swept away the portal in a matter of minutes and they had to take safety in the neighbors’ apartments on the upper floors. When Arturo came back down at three in the morning, his house was razed. He mud was knee-deep and within the chaos, he was surprised to see a puzzle that his son Arturo was doing and his dry and intact self-employment invoices on the tables, which had floated with the water.

Two months later, residents of the affected areas long to return to a normality that is still very far away. In Massanassa, the military still dominates the image of the town. Most of them work helping to remove mud from garages and storage rooms. to neighbors dressed in protective equipment and masks. At the town’s municipal library, dozens of people still queue to receive a hot meal and on a rainy day, the streets become moist again with the dry mud that still appears.

Rosa and her family began the work a couple of weeks ago to try to recover their house, fed up with waiting for compensation from the Consortium. Since the day of the Dana they live in the house of their aunt, a woman from 86 yearsand they still don’t know when they will be able to return.

The water mark is still visible more than two meters high on the walls, which are still full of mold. The first thing was to knock them down and chop them to put an anti-humidity plaster. In the bathroom, the bathtub is still covered in mud and in what was previously Arturo’s living room and office, debris of all kinds piles up while three bricklayers rush to remove it little by little to the container located at the door.

They have just started, but fear they will be forced to stop. “The money will run out if the Consortium doesn’t pay,” admits Arturo. The expert went to his house on November 7, a week after the damage, but they have not yet received compensation. Since then, they have only received aid from the Amancio Ortega Foundation to affected homes and to Juan Roig’s companies, since Arturo worked as a freelancer from home.

In a first assessment, the Consortium told them that it was their responsibility 45,000 euros because they could not cover more than 7,000 euros in damaged material inside the house. «If they only give me that money, I’ll board up the house, it’s over. “I can’t afford more, I’m already paying another car bill of 200 euros to start the work,” says Arturo, who complains about the difficulties in receiving compensation despite having been paying for home insurance for twenty years. «Having to be fighting I don’t see it fair. my blood boils», he denies. After providing an estimate of the damages, the Consortium told them that it was more, but without a fixed amount, they are still waiting.

for three weeks They were sleeping on a mattress and although they assure that they are fineyour goal is to return home as soon as possible. “They say about returning to normal, but what normality do I have?” he complains.

Living in the living room with your daughter

Even so, not all affected residents have left their homes or been able to begin rebuilding them. Rosa Nacher still living with his daughter CristinaBallester in the living room of your house, converted into a room with twomattresses. In front of him the TV is on and his dog barks in the presence of strangers.

Half a meter of water entered their house and they both had to jump through the interior patio to their neighbor’s house, scared by the torrent of water coming down their street. «A car crashed into the door and blocked it.the waterotherwise more than a meter would have entered,” says Rosa. “Even so, I was afraid that he would break the door and take us away,” he adds.

Hundreds of people go to the logistics points every day for food and cleaning products
Hundreds of people go to the logistics points every day for food and cleaning productsKike Taberner

The old wooden door now does not close properly and the windows are kept open to remove the musty smell that still lingers. Some friends have offered Rosa their homes, but with a big dog and everything. scrambled around the househas preferred to stay at home, despite everything.

Now he is waiting to see when work can begin on the front of the house, where the bedrooms are. «They have told me that I have to throw a meter and a half of wall“, says. Rosa has requested a quote from two companies, but is waiting to receive the money from the Consortium. Without that compensation, he can’t get started, and yet he claims it won’t be enough. «They have estimated me 33,000 euros and I don’t know what they think I’m going to do with that. In painting alone there are surely more than 4,000 euros“, says. For the moment, like the other neighbor, she has only received private aid, money with which she has been able to buy a stove to stay warm.

For Rosa, the goal is to be able to have finished the work in their bedrooms before San Juan. “I want to sleep in my room, have my privacy,” says the mother, who assures that living together for two months in the living room with her 32-year-old daughter Cristina takes its toll.

“We’re both putting up with each other and of course, sometimes you yell at each other and talk badly to each other,” she admits. «It’s heavy. “It’s been two months now, but it has had an effect on me for more than a year.”

Despite everything, families They know they could have had worse luck.. Cristina’s heart still shrinks when she remembers the days when the municipal side said: the names and surnames of missing people for whom their relatives were searching. Some of them were acquaintances and returned, but others repeated the name until it stopped ringing.

At 6:15 p.m., Arturo had to take your child by car with his friendsbut he decided to shower first and they didn’t have time to go out. “Thank goodness, if not my father would have appeared in l’Albufera,” says his son Alberto. “In the end, we are grateful to be alive,” duck.