29 October 2024. Valencia dawns with a strange feeling, very far from the reality that awaited us.
Cora Water and Salt – 7:35
And… here the world cup is falling 😬🤐
Nerea Water and Salt – 7:37
In Cheste I won't even tell you 😟
Desiree Tornero – 7:37
Well, if you see it very bad, stay home., I'm going to go to the office, yesterday I left late and left my computer there
Cora Water and Salt – 7:39
Vale, If it continues like this, I'll march from home 👍🏼
Paula Water and Salt – 7:43
Vale!! I do see that for a little while I'm going to the office and if it continues like this then from home
Nerea Water and Salt – 7:43
Holoá pare ✌🏼😂
Maria de Quesada – 7:51
Good day! Well, I'm going to stay home because the subway strike + universal flood is not a good combo 😅🙏
Pere – 7:57
Idem, bday! Here everything goes in flight!
Desiree Tornero – 8:00
we do Teams meeting in a while 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼
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The day everything changed
And from then on the despair, lack of knowledge and information. The fear. The uncertainty, the anguish, the desolation. We lost contact with our colleague from Cheste, mine, during agonizing hours in which we didn't really know what was happening and why just 3 km from the disaster, and without a drop of rain, the sky spoke of death. A reality divided between those who were left in the trap and those of us who were saved by chance, by a WhatsApp message or by an intuition.
Extreme rains, The lack of planning and failures in alerts turned the DANA a year ago in Valencia into the worst tragedy of the century; a historic catastrophe that took the lives of 229 people and left hopes in the mud, delusions, jobs and dreams of thousands of families.
The diverted channel of the Turia at the height of the V-30 (29 October around 23:00h) from Desirée's apartment
People were dying next to us, The cries for help were everywhere and we were left in the hands of luck, survival and the people who gave everything to help others. Even their own lives. Those of us who were on the other side of death, It was not until the next day that we began to be aware of the magnitude of the horror that today once again shakes so many souls..
Since then, we have known thousands of stories, of rescues at the last minute, of people who risked everything to shake hands with another. Stories of anguish and pain, of loss and grief. There are those who have lived in the mud for too many months and those who went to a theater of war in the morning and to another parallel world without mud in the afternoon, a few kilometers away. A dystopia of devastated businesses, broken people and suffering that has brought out the worst and the best in human beings.
The power of love
We also remember the waves of young people who crossed the “walkway of hope” to help in any way they could; the companies and personnel who brought the machines necessary to move the thousands of cars and kilos of mud; security forces and firefighters arriving from all over Spain and beyond; the power of love.
(11/11/2024) Pere, Cora and Nerea helping to coordinate materials to donate at the Perfumarte headquarters in Picassent
We helped as much as we could with the feeling of never being enough, and so did clients we work with every day.: Arival companies, de AVAESEN, the College of Civil Engineers of the Valencian Community, Wares, We have a, FEVEC… hours and more hours since Value Chain, economics program on the À Punt radio from where Cora and Pere brought us closer to the situation of the companies, people and the Valencian economy after the disaster.
AVEMCOP machinery working in the affected areas
Months and months with Dana specials in the Value Chain
Vareser workers helping with cleaning tasks
Pain, respect and admiration
one year later, We look back with a mixture of pain, respect and admiration. Pain for everything that was lost; respect for those who gave everything in those dark days; and admiration for the strength with which so many people and communities have risen from the mud to start again.
🎧 The podcast “A Normal Day” is a Valencian sound project that documents tragedy and resilience through the people who were there at the moment when their lives changed forever.. A collective chronicle, a call to action and a necessary testimony so that what happened that day is not forgotten.
The dana of 2024 reminds us of the fragility, the urgency to prevent and stop improvising; and above all, the need to sit and listen to those who still have so much to cry. 💙