• Floods.Ontinyent looks at the Clariano: "The river has left nothing in the houses"
  • Damages: Onyntye asks for declaration of catastrophic zone

«Water has taken everything. I have nothing more than what I wear. Mari Carmen Debón looks inside her house while trying to remove an armchair that the water that overflowed the Clariano River has left anchored at the door. The mud floods everything and his house, the ground floor in which he has spent his whole life, has become a mass of useless junk. "I've lost everything, including the memories of my husband, who passed away two years ago," Mari Carmen confessed to Remedios Solozano, a friend who was waiting for her at the entrance of Canterería de Ontinyent Street.

The Local Police only lets a neighbor through the house to pick up the basics, some clothes to spend the next few days. But it is difficult to rescue any garment from the chaos of furniture, appliances and mud that houses have become.

Something higher, Vanesa Ríos drags a black garbage bag with her belongings, what little she has managed to save. He was awake all night and at dawn his mother decided to take the car off a street that a few hours later was completely flooded. «Then he returned, but the water surpassed the wall and had to take refuge in the upper part of the house until the rain gave a truce. Many neighbors had to get them off the roof but she took advantage of a drop in flow to get out on her own foot because she feared the worst. The water rose about six meters, ”he explains.

And the test remains drawn on the portals. A mud line, two and a half meters high, recalls the level that the water reached during the flood. «I've been here for 25 years and I've never seen anything like it: beds and refrigerators floating and people trapped in the houses . Among them, many children and older people who could only leave when firefighters set up a walkway to take them out on the roof, ”recalls Ilaham Mahklog.

A woman at the door of her house ravaged by water. TOLEDO

Floods in this particular part of Ontinyent are to some extent common. Located very close to the river, during the episodes of heavy rains, some water usually enters the street when the flow exceeds the small parapet that separates the channel from the street. «But never like now. We had some episodes in which some water entered, but I had never seen this, ”insists Debón.

Most of the doors of access to the houses have disappeared, fractured by the force of the water that also destroyed some internal walls. Everything is in sight, including a motorcycle wrapped in branches, hurdle and mud that its owner could not get out of the garage that served as entrance to his house. A few meters later, near the ramp that serves to leave the wrecked street, neighbors strive to remove the mud that has accumulated inside a bass. The current opened the doors wide and left inside a car that just a few minutes before removed a crane.

The homes have been hit with such intensity that the mayor of Ontinyent, Jorge Rodríguez, has already announced that the neighbors will not be able to return to their homes until it is determined that they are safe. Some have relatives who have made a hole in their homes, but many of the inhabitants of this humble neighborhood at the foot of the Clariano do not even have that possibility. Until the storm is completely over and the risk of the flood is reproduced, they will have to manage in a shelter that the City Council of Ontinyent has made available to them. There they spent the first night about 30 neighbors, aware that the cold drop has left them with nothing.

«The house is here to throw it away. There is no furniture. We will see what we do because we will have to move, ”says José Cerdán laconically. Some relatives and neighbors accompany you to certify what you already know: that your house has been swallowed by the storm .

The mayor has already requested the declaration of catastrophic zone and wanted to maintain prudence in anticipation that new episodes of torrential rains could occur during the night. At the moment, in addition, the residents of Canterería will not be allowed to return to their homes at least until today, when the rainy episode is scheduled to begin to remit. “Fortunately there is no personal harm to regret . Ontinyent has accumulated these days up to 400 liters per square meter , a historical record for the town. We have already begun to clean quarry and enable some accesses that the water had forced to close, ”said the mayor.

Accessing the municipality, yesterday morning, was still complicated even though it was never isolated. Although the climatic conditions improved as the day started, in the morning the rainfall was intense interminably. Before giving 10 hours, in fact, entering the municipality from the north was a difficult task. Some runoffs made the roads leading to the urban center impracticable and the Local Police decided to prevent the passage.

Beyond the Canterería neighborhood, the city woke up to a certain extent normally. Many low registered water inflows of low intensity that their owners could remove without major complications. Nothing compared to what their neighbors in Canterería suffered.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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