Antonio (figurative name) died only in Catarroja (30,142 inhabitants) on 29 October 2024, when damage left 229 dead in Valencia. The ordeal of this elderly man suffering from a 66% disability began at 7.30 pm. The overflow of the imposing Poyo ravine has transformed its ground floor into an agonizing aquarium. His is the last of the transcripts of the teleassistance service incorporated into the case investigated by magistrate Nuria Ruiz Tobarra. In September, the trainer had opened a line of investigation to explain how 37 elderly people had died in relation to the telephone assistance that the Generalitat and the Provincial Council of Valencia provide through a company.
These were Antonio’s last hours, according to the conversation to which EL PAÍS had access.
Operator: HI. I’m Patricia, from the advanced teleassistance service of the Generalitat. I inform you that the conversation may be recorded, how can I help you?
Anthony: At home I have half a meter of water.
OR: Ok, Antonio, try to stay in a high place. I’ll call your kids, okay?
TO: AS?
OR: Try to stand in a high place. I’ll call his relatives.
TO: Maybe they can’t come by car.
OR: I know, but the emergency services don’t answer the phone. They are saturated. Give me a moment, Antonio.
Half an hour later, the operator alerts the old man that his daughter is trying to return home. She asks him to continue holding the mobile. Antonio stops speaking.
Meanwhile, another telephone operator communicates with the old man’s daughter.
Operator: How is the situation?
Daughter: Well, I call my aunt, who lives on the same street (as the victim), and she says the water is up to her waist, so I say, aunt, will they let us go to the car? It seems like they won’t let us get there, I don’t know how we’ll get there.
OR: Ok, do you know if the house has two floors?
H: The house, yes. It has three floors, it happens that I call my father and he doesn’t answer the phone anymore. The plugs got wet and the phone no longer works.
OR: Ok, and what can you tell me? Are you accompanied by anyone? Your aunt? Right?
H: No, no, no, no. He’s alone. My aunt can’t get there. She is an elderly woman, lives in another house.
OR: Ok, so don’t worry. I’m warning you that the water is up to your waist and that you have limited mobility, okay? I’ll let you know now.
H: So…okay, I just don’t know…we’ll drive there, I don’t know how far we’ll be able to drive.
OR: Nothing, call 112 (the Generalitat emergency switchboard), call the fire brigade, ok? with any little thing we are informing them.
H: Yes, please. A thousand thanks.
OR: To you.
The last communication in extremis It is registered between the daughter and a telecare operator. Another different employee.
OR: Hello, good evening, tell me.
H: Hi, I’m my daughter, you just called me and I had the phone charging on the other end. You just called me.
OR: Ok, yes, nothing, just a moment. Your father called us at 7.30pm because his house was flooded. So we left the notice at 112. We found it again at 8pm. All right? But we haven’t contacted anyone since then.
H: No, now. We see. I talk to one of your colleagues all the time, I don’t know… I called back a little while ago. Let’s see, I call 112 and they don’t do…
OR: Ninth. 112 is saturated. It has a number of… it has an optional number, okay? This is what he gave us. And even then, not all the calls we make reach them.
H: If my father is no longer… he will no longer be able to answer the phone.
OR: Of course we requested the warning now at 9.30pm, we don’t know anything else.
H: You don’t know anything, you don’t know anything, if they’re gone or whatever.
OR: NO.
H: Of course, he has limited mobility and doesn’t…
OR: Yes, yes, no. If we have people completely trapped with no upper floor… we have people on the ground with their house flooded, we have people with totally limited mobility who can barely… They’re on a table because they can’t be lifted any higher so they don’t get wet, and everything is fatal.
H: And one thing, do you have proof? Of course I don’t even know what that area is like.
OR: No, no, no. He doesn’t even answer the phone for us. We have…There are companies that have completely cut the line.
H: This is what I was going to tell you. It’s just that I call the surrounding neighbors to see if… Or to tell me under what conditions…
OR: For example, I tried to contact my family in the Valencian municipality of Picassent, the entire Vodafone line was interrupted.
H: He fell, right? That’s why… I mean, it’s because I know, I tried to get closer and we got stuck in… well, in La Torre (Valencia neighborhood) with all the cars, well… floating around there. It was… well… it’s apocalyptic, really. And the thing is, I’m calling to… no, no, no, it’s all cut off, right? To find out what…
OR: Yes, yes, correct. No, no, the fact is that the Silla slope is inaccessible, because at the height of Massanassa due to Ikea and everything else, it overflowed into the ravine.
H: It overflowed. The floor overflowing with chairs, okay, okay.
OR: Yes, everything, that is, the entire chair run is overflowing. Even the A3 motorway, which is all that passes through Torrent, etc., is packed.
H: That’s right, they’re all cut (…) Well, nothing. I imagine that my father, in the worst case scenario, sitting on the stairs with his butt in the air, would have managed to get up, you know? I do not know. Let’s wait and see that everything goes well. We are super worried.
OR: Let’s see, I understand, I understand… They’re all the same, but it’s not like that… it’s just that at seven in the afternoon there were already access to homes that the firefighters told us they couldn’t access.
H: They couldn’t get in.
OR: We’re talking about seven in the afternoon.
H: Yes, that’s fine.
OR: In some places, especially in the Ribera region. Here, in the Horta Sud region, the whole disaster began around 7.30 pm. Around 8pm, but in the La Ribera region overflows have already been recorded this morning.
H: Since this morning. Okay, okay, nothing. Thank you for the information
OR: Nothing. If we knew anything, we’d call you.
H: Ok, ok, I’ll wait, thank you very much.
OR: Okay, goodnight.
Antonio was one of the 25 deaths caused by the worst storm of the century in Catarroja.
