From saving a life in Paiporta to recovering a home: the reconstruction after DANA

When Carlos Alberto helped his wife, Yorladis, up the last steps of the ladder leading to the attic, the dirty water was already ahead of them. With them was Carmen, an elderly woman Yorladis had been caring for for months. On the lower floors of that house, the water level exceeded two and a half meters. In a matter of minutes, the DANA flood violently breached the privacy of thousands of homes like this one.

Read more Eight children aged 1 to 14 die in a mass shooting in Louisiana

Fundación Naturgy’s ‘Sumando Energías por Valencia’ program acts directly on this wound, in the heart of homes like Carlos and Yorladis’, which were completely destroyed by mud.

Carlos stands in the inner courtyard of his home, a street-level house in Paiporta, a few meters from the Poyo ravine. He watches the work of two bricklayers who this morning are replacing the doors and windows that DANA destroyed. His gaze seems to travel back a year, to the exact moment that preceded the catastrophe.

“I had a premonition. My wife called me and told me the ravine had overflowed,” Carlos recounts. Water was already rushing through the streets. “I didn’t hesitate,” he continues. “I left my children and my father-in-law with the upstairs neighbor and went out in search of my wife and Carmen.”

Carlos made this decision in the moments leading up to the total disaster. It was a matter of minutes. The time it took him to cover the mere 300 meters separating his home from Carmen’s house; a robust house, with three stories and carved wooden gates, which the water breached as if they were the threshold of a dollhouse.

When Carlos crossed those doors, Yorladis was trying to get the elderly woman up to the attic. “My wife has a heart that would never have allowed her to leave the granny to save herself,” Carlos explains. But “the granny said she couldn’t go up. I told her we could. And with that ‘berraquera’ (courage, enthusiasm) that we Colombians have, we took the granny up to the attic, where we spent the night.”

Carlos Alberto and Yorladis saved Carmen’s life, but the next morning, when they returned home, they saw their home completely devastated. “There was only mud,” Carlos recalls.

But the couple’s bravery did not go unnoticed. Carmen’s family, moved by their actions, lent them a home while they repaired theirs. “Our parents taught us that if you help, that help will come back to you,” Carlos adds.

Read more The challenge of surviving the Sagrada Família

This is the story of circular generosity in which Fundación Naturgy has also played a fundamental role. “When the water receded, what we found was truly like a war zone,” recounts Ana Sena, president of the Anem Endavant association, which collaborates with Fundación Naturgy in rehabilitating the homes of families like Carlos and Yorladis. Ana turned her association into a radar to detect on the ground the needs of many people who, otherwise, would have gone unnoticed: “These are families who have a roof, but who live among soaked walls, without windows and without basic services,” she explains.

Ana’s association acts as a link between the territory and real aid. “For us, the help from Fundación Naturgy has been a godsend,” Ana states emphatically. “At a time when there is no available labor, they have brought agility. They come, assess, and directly provide the means without asking for anything else, allowing the works to truly progress.”

Carlos remains standing in front of the bricklayers. He watches them finish a door and, when he turns, he sees Yorladis and their young son examining the newly installed window frame.

It’s not just a simple carpentry job; in some way, that door and the windows also function as a definitive barrier against the memory of the flood. They are an energetic closure; the end point to DANA in this home. “The work they are doing right now is so that we can return to a normal life.”