The province of Valencia wakes up after a nightmarish night waiting to find out the magnitude of the devastation of the storm that has been hanging over her since this Tuesday. There are dead people, missing people, isolated drivers, neighbors perched on the upper floors, thousands of displaced people who could not return to their homes last night, piled up cars, flooded towns and blocked roads. The damages are incalculable.

The president of the Generalitat, Carlos Mazón, confirmed last night the recovery of “lifeless bodies”, but avoided giving a number until contacting the relatives. Today, in daylight and with the water level dropping in the most affected Valencian regions, Utiel-Requena, Hoya de Buñol l’Horta de Valencia and La Ribera, it is expected to be able to reach places where yesterday it was impossible or very difficult. For all these reasons, it is impossible to offer an estimate of missing people. The Generalitat has just enabled this telephone number only intended to inform about these unlocated people: 900365112.

The cold drop suffered by the Valencian Community is the worst of this 21st century, comparable to those experienced in 1987 and 1982, that of the Everyone’s Swamp, according to the first balance offered by the State Meteorological Agency in its X profile.

The alerts began to sound this Wednesday at seven in the morning, while criticism intensified on social networks for the lack of foresight and warning to citizens about the violence of the storm. 112 emergencies sent the first alert a few minutes after 8 p.m. on Tuesday. Thousands of people were stuck on the roads, in shopping centers or at work. There were very numerous messages on social networks asking for help for isolated people due to the impossibility of contacting 112, due to the collapse of calls.

After midnight Mazón confirmed the existence of fatalities although he did not provide any number or location of them. He also explained that there were areas whose situation was unknown, since it had not been possible to access them and it had not been possible to establish communication with their mayors.

The damage that affected the interior of the province of Valencia this Tuesday morning resulted in flooding mainly in the area of ​​Utiel, when the Magre River overflowed, and also in towns such as Chiva, where nearly 500 liters per meter have been collected. square, one of the highest records in the last twenty years.

All that fallen water has moved towards the southeast for hours, towards the coast, which transferred the problems of those regions of Requena-Utiel and Hoya de Buñol to that of La Ribera Alta, an area in which it has not rained much. but which also suffers major floods, like the highly populated and busy metropolitan area of ​​Valencia, the capital.

The district of Pinedo, with about two thousand inhabitants, was evacuated and others such as Castellar and southern neighborhoods such as Forn d’Alcedo and La Torre suffered flooding. The diversion of the Túria riverbed to the center of the city in the 1960s was able to avoid another ‘riuà’ like the one in 1957.

The overflowing ravines, mainly the Poyo one, which joins the swollen Túria and for hours on roads such as the A3 or the Valencia ring road, the V30, and a large number of people who had to take refuge at heights, from the roofs of buildings to trucks, due to the risk of being swept away.

They did so while waiting for rescues that in many cases took hours to arrive. As Mazón explained, not due to lack of means but due to the impossibility of acting. The firefighters and local police were also joined by members of the Military Emergency Unit (UME).

In some cases, not even the security forces could escape the water and at the Paiporta Civil Guard barracks they spent the entire night watching for two of their agents, who were missing in the barracks garage.

Videos of torrents of water displacing cars and also of people being dragged spread across messaging applications and social networks, although these also served to help locate trapped people and thus facilitated the work of the security forces.

In the next few hours, with the sunlight and in principle with the most intense rains moving towards the north, it is expected to be able to take stock, first of fatalities and injuries and then of the enormous material damage that in the form of destruction and tons of mud is leaving in its wake a storm without a name but ready to make history.