Valencia flood miracles: Woman rescued from her car after 3 days
More than 200 people were killed in the terrifying Valencian Community floods last week
The unprecedented floods of Tuesday October 29 killed 210 people in Valencia and the surrounding regions. While towns, cities and villages attempt to pick up the pieces after such an unthinkable tragedy, one or two good news stories have emerged to offer a glimmer of hope.
An incredible and unexpected rescue took place in the Valencia town of Benetússer, where a woman was found alive in her car at the bottom of an underpass. She had been trapped and stranded inside her vehicle for three days.
The president of Civil Protection in the Valencian Community, Martín Pérez, gave the good news on Friday night, November 1, to the nearly 400 volunteers who are gathered in the Moncada pavilion, to much relief and applause.
Throughout all the devastation, the hard-working emergency services and volunteers are still finding people alive, despite the worst odds imaginable.
Also in the town of Benetússer, a pharmacist named Silvia sent a heartbreaking message saying goodbye to her family during the most ferocious moments of the storm. The terrified woman was trapped inside her shop, which was rapidly filling with water, and she was unable to contact the emergency services.
Suddenly, the force of the water burst open the shutters and Silvia was swept away to what she believed was a certain death. However, rescue workers were in exactly the right place at the right time, and Silvia was plucked from the torrent and carried to safety.
Meanwhile, National Police officers expected the worst on Monday November 4 when they carried out a search of the underground car park of the Bonaire shopping centre, the largest commercial centre in the Valencian Community located in the municipality of Aldaia.
The DANA transformed the enormous car park into an underground sea filled with 200 million litres of water, and rescue workers were afraid to even estimate how many bodies they would find – Bonaire has 5,700 parking spaces, of which around half are underground.
However, to the astonishment and incalculable relief of police, an examination of the first 50 submerged vehicles has revealed no fatalities.
Image: Guardia Civil
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