E.M. and her two children died on October 29 in the Valencian town of Chiva. The water was flowing down the ravine with such force that it swept them away along with three dogs while they were holding onto the window bars. His wife and the children's mother could not do anything to save them.
J.M. also died on that fateful day of the dana. She was 26 years old and eight months pregnant. She had planned to take maternity leave in two days. However, on October 29, after finishing work at an industrial estate in Ribarroja, she got into her car to go home. At 6:53 p.m., she called her mother to say that water kept entering the vehicle and that she was drowning. When she managed to get out of the car to climb onto the roof of another one, an iron container hit her. Her body was found four days later.
Z.G. and her son also tried to survive the floods by climbing onto the roof of a van. It was impossible because the water dragged them until they could hold onto the window of a bar. The neighbor from the first floor tried to help them by throwing a sheet that they tied to the balcony. The mother was unable to reach it and escaped downstream in front of her desperate son, whose last sight was his hand trying to emerge from the water.
These are just five of the 228 deaths that occurred in the province of Valencia on the day of the dana. They are detailed by the judge from Catarroja investigating the tragedy in one of her court orders, to make it clear that "the manner of death is showing the existence of psychological aftermath in the relatives." "The psychological aftermath is evident," states Judge Nuria Ruiz Tobarra.
This is confirmed by those who have been by the side of the victims for four months providing psychological support. Because the tangible image of devastation - with buildings still shored up and infrastructure damaged in many towns - hides beneath the surface the invisible drama of emotional impact. "What we are encountering on a daily basis is people with a lot of anxiety, discomfort, depression...", confirms Inma March, a psychologist working in the Social Services of the Sedaví City Council.
Those who feared for their lives on October 29 or saw their neighbors disappear under the water, those who found themselves neck-deep in water clinging to a tree, or those who returned to houses buried under mud carry psychological scars. Four months later, some are not even able to shower.
"Something as simple as showering can become a nightmare for those who almost drowned on the day of the dana. They were so sensitized to water that reliving it can be a problem for them," explains Angélica Giordano, a trauma expert psychologist. "There are people who until recently could not even pass by the destroyed commercial premises", Giordano insists. The shops that are no longer there are a poignant reminder of a life that has not returned since that October 29.
Giordano even treated a person who was paralyzed just by hearing the noise of the air conditioning. It was the same noise they heard when it rained on October 29. Four months later, the nightmare replays in the minds of those who thought they were dying. Any rainy day now can be October 29.
The youngest ones have also suffered from the dana. "It seems they are the great forgotten in this crisis," laments March. And yet, thousands of children have been displaced from their schools and separated from their friends, many have lost their homes or seen their toys disappear under the mud, and all have witnessed their families suffer. There are children who have lost their parents or grandparents.
After the dana, hundreds of schools were closed for weeks, so when storm alerts were repeated and classes were suspended again, children had a hard time. "They are very afraid because for them, the ghosts of that day return", says March. The ghosts are the nights without light (electricity took days to be restored in the affected municipalities) or even the feeling of abandonment.
"Children are the great forgotten in this crisis. They are very afraid because for them, the ghosts of that day return"
Giordano explains: "In addition to experiencing fear and horror, children also experienced the abandonment of mom and dad. It wasn't abandonment, because the parents were clearing mud from the houses, but in their heads, they interpreted it that way."
The way children process trauma is usually faster, although it depends on the security they perceive after the traumatic event. "That is, a child who found themselves chest-deep in water but saw how their parents could help them and then drew that and felt safe, will process the trauma much better," says this psychologist. "It all depends on the security children feel, that's why it is so important to first attend to adults psychologically, as they are the ones who can offer their children that security." Hence, "the great fear" of psychologists is the development of post-traumatic stress disorder among the dana population.
Salvador Almenar is a Social Intervention psychologist and one of the spokespersons for the Official College of Psychology of the Valencian Community in the current recovery phase, focusing on community work. He warns of the concern about the appearance of problems related to post-traumatic stress, once the initial shock that psychologists who were deployed in the dana area had to deal with in the first weeks has passed. In total, about 600 volunteers.
But it was from the second month onwards when symptoms of post-traumatic stress began to appear, which "manifests as a way of reliving the traumatic situation," in Almenar's words. "It's as if the same discomfort experienced in the past accumulates in your mind," he insists. Post-traumatic stress can appear months or even years later.
Giordano refers to "intrusive symptomatology," which allows specialists to glimpse that there are trauma symptoms. In other words, that "there is something that the brain has not been able to process". According to this trauma expert, intrusive symptomatology can be memories that, for example, prevent the patient from going to certain places associated with the traumatic event.
"Isolation, not wanting to express what one feels because they believe what they experienced was so harsh that no one will understand... It is a symptomatology that becomes an obstacle to daily life, preventing people from resuming their lives normally," explains Giordano, who also agrees that there will be dana victims who develop this condition.
Between December and January, for example, 44 interventions were carried out with 600 people attended in the dana area. Group sessions were held to "cleanse the wound". "We explain to the neighbors that the symptoms experienced by those who suffered losses in the dana are normal, that what they experienced is abnormal. Psychologists intervene to help the nervous system digest what they have experienced," says Giordano, using a graphic analogy to explain it.
"Just as the digestive system reacts with nausea or heaviness when we eat something indigestible, the brain reacts when we experience something shocking that we struggle to process." It's as if the suffering we experienced remains there, stored in a corner of the mind unable to be digested. It's an unprocessed memory: "That's why when I'm walking and something reminds me of the water, I can't think of anything else or continue with what I was doing."