My Life in Valencia

DANA Valencia 2024

These last five days have been difficult to say the least. As many of you know by now, last Tuesday, Oct. 30, 2024, Valencia was hit with a huge storm (known as DANA) that DESTROYED villages and towns surrounding Valencia. And while I and those I know and work with are safe, we are all still reeling from it all and trying to process what and how this has happened. I myself have been going through all the stages of grief starting with denial, and quickly going to anger, guilt, bargaining and deep sadness. I haven’t gotten to acceptance yet. I feel I´m still in the midst of it all and still processing. And I am one of the very lucky ones because I live in the city.

While I usually post the fun, beautiful amazing things that I do here in Valencia, I think it is important to describe for everyone what it is like right now. So far this storm is the worst natural disaster in Spain in decades as well as all of Europe. No one has seen something quite like it here. I know that many of you and many others have gone through similar natural disasters and are coping with your own challenges as well. And I also know that around the world there is a lot of destruction and mayhem right now. The world is a scary place. This is not meant to make light of anything else happening nor to minimise it all. But I do want to shed a light on what the reality here in Valencia is because it is really hard to believe. However I am not going to share the many heartbreaking photos and videos……all you have to do is google Valencia floods and you will be inundated.

I think what separates this storm from other hurricanes and natural disasters (at least in the US and from my experience) is that no one was expecting or prepared for it. In the U.S., I am used to days or more of preparedness and warnings, especially for hurricanes, with recommendations to evacuate ahead of time. Here in Valencia, we knew there was a storm coming and that it was going to be a bad one, but from what was predicted, everyone just went about their normal day (including myself). Some institutions closed, but not all or many, and most people went to work as usual. I myself was on campus and although the skies were certainly dark and stormy, it felt like any other storm. After work I went to my trainer’s and then headed home via bus. It was super windy…with very strong wind gusts I would say, but no rain. Just a little bit after 8pm while I was on my way home there was an emergency siren and alerts ringing on everyone’s cell phones telling people to stay home (I have learned later that this never happened before here. No one has ever gotten alerts this.) I got home as quickly as possible, ate dinner, and went to bed like any other day. I woke up really early the next morning before anyone else was stirring and thought, “hmm that didn’t seem so bad, it didn’t even rain”. Then I started seeing all the messages. Campus had closed at 10pm the night before and was closed for all of Wednesday. I still couldn’t understand what the fuss was. Then the news started coming in and the images. And it was heartbreaking. Cars piled ontop of each other, houses covered in mud etc. Then you started hearing about the death toll, 25, 50…….WHAT HAPPENED?

It has now come out that by the time the first alerts sounded at 8pm many of the towns surrounding Valencia were already flooded. As these are commuter towns, many people were on their way home from work or picking up the kids. People were on the highway stuck in their cars with the rapidly rising water not being able to get out or go anywhere, trying to climb up to their rooftops to safety as their cars floated down the muddy river that was once a road. Garages, houses, roads, destroyed and covered in mud. Just unbelievable. Now five days later, the death toll is over 200 with dozens of people still missing. Internet is still unreliable and in some cases not at all possible. While some roads are starting to open up and busses now are running, transportation in and out of Valencia is iffy and unreliable as well. Not to mention people not even having their cars to be able to try and go anywhere. And the metro in Valencia is closed for the foreseeable future because it got flooded as well.

As we all tried to grapple with what we were seeing and hearing, we also tried to figure out how to help. Help from the Spanish government, while there, was slow at best and is not enough and so people started mobilizing. People in the affected towns needed supplies from food, to water, to medicine and hygiene products, to cleaning and pet supplies (yes our furry family members are also in desperate need). Finally local organisations and the Valencian Ayuntamiento started creating drop-off stations where people could donate needed items. Groceries store shelves have been emptied as people try to buy as many essential supplies to donate. You cannot find bottled water, milk, bread and other common items. I have gone multiple time times now doing runs to the grocery to and then to the Mestalla soccer stadium, one of the largest dropping points. Trying to get whatever I can find to help. This has come the new normal for the foreseeable future.

In addition to donating, people are also trying to help clean-up. But that has been difficult as in the beginning we were told to stay off the roads and not drive. So people started walking several kilometers over the main bridge to get to the towns to clean with shovels, brooms and mops in hand. By Saturday the government started organising busses to take people to towns to help. THOUSANDS of people arrived at the City of Arts and Sciences to help clean (see picture below). However I saw one report of someone there who said that once they got to one of the hard hit towns they were told to wait and ultimately didn’t do anything and had to wait to be escorted back to the city.

The Berklee Valencia campus has been closed since last Tuesday. Luckily, we had fall break starting Thursday so minimal classes were missed. Since students live in the city, they were not impacted greatly. However, many of our faculty and staff live in these villages and as we plan to reopen tomorrow, it is still uncertain what faculty and staff can actually get to campus. And on top of it all we had another thunderstorm tonight. So who knows what the situation will be tomorrow.

Although I am talking about a lot of this in the past tense, this is still far from over. It’s going to take weeks if not months to get people back on their feet and to go back to some kind of normalcy. It will take much longer to rebuild. However, as difficult as this has been, I am more than ever proud of living here in Valencia. I am also extremely aware of how lucky I am and I will continue to do what I can to help. In all of this uncertainty and destruction I am struck by the solidarity of the Valencian community. Even in all the sadness, despair and anger, it’s amazing and heartwarming to see a community come together like this to help each other. Te quiero, Valencia. Te quiero.