Catalan volunteer in Valencia: "Watching the news is heartbreaking. Coming is the least we can do"

The floods in Valencia have been responded to with a wave of solidarity in Catalonia.

Many organizations have collected food, clothes, and money to send, while hundreds of people traveled this weekend to the disaster sites to help out with the cleaning and recovery efforts in person.

In the towns of Sedaví, Picanya, or Paporta, many Catalans are on the streets removing mud and rubbish and distributing food.

"Watching the news is heartbreaking. Coming is the least we can do," they tell the Catalan News Agency.

Among those who have travelled are members of the Forest Defense Associations, the Catalan Fire Department, and an expedition of a hundred emergency responders from Barcelona.

Although initially the Forest Defence Association members were suspicious of whether the aid would be accepted due to the reluctance of the Valencian government, they decided to make the journey anyway.

The president of the Penedès-Garraf Federation, Francesc Martínez, explained to the Catalan News Agency that for the moment his work is focused on helping the residents of Picanya to remove water from underground car parks, put up fences in danger areas, "and help everyone who he asked for it."

"It's something that comes from inside you," he asserts.

Martínez says that in 2019 he volunteered in the recovery tasks following the flooding of the Espluga de Francolí which left him shocked, but the scenario in Valencia has "made them cry."

"When you talk to the neighbors and see that there may be 2,000 people missing who will probably be fatalities, it's shocking."

These volunteers are dedicated to the cause but also emphasize that the work is "very, very tiring," both physically and mentally.

Walking for hours and hours in boots through a patch of mud, lifting water pumps and removing shovels of waste is leaving them "exhausted."

Added to this is the emotional impact "when you know that in the parking lots there are cars with people trapped under the water."

Aid collections

The people of Barcelona and Girona are going all out in helping to collect material and essential products to send south.

The Castellers de Barcelona and the Ateneu del Raval are two of the collection points for donations, and organizers theresay the response has exceeded their expectations.

"It is impossible to quantify what we have received so far," the president of Castellers de Barcelona, ​​Gregori Samper, tells the Catalan News Agency.

They add that they have already sent two shipments to Valencia. "The idea is not to saturate roads, but to do everything with caution."

In the Ateneu del Raval, the venue is smaller and they expect the first donation to be sent on Monday.

In both cases, the arrival of people with donations has been constant throughout the day on Saturday.

At the Castellers de Barcelona venue, located in El Clot, at some times during the afternoon there were even queues outside the street and as the donations arrived, the organizers took the opportunity to sort them.

A citizens' initiative in Girona is also collecting huge amounts of relief to send to Valencia.

On Saturday morning, a group of volunteers gathered in front of the Post Office in the north Catalan city to collect food and clothes to send to the areas most affected by the floods.

Dozens of people approached with cars loaded with water, basic foods such as rice, and also blankets and warm clothes.

"The situation is even more serious than what is happening to us: they have no water, no electricity and there is little response from the administration; that's why we've decided to mobilize," explained one of the promoters of this initiative, Mireia Van Leeuwen.