six hours clinging to guardrail and almost completely submerged under water

Hilario, one of the survivors of the recent DANA that has hit the Valencian Communityshared on the program The Rock of the Sixth the shocking account of the six hours he spent submerged in water after being trapped in his car on the road.

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In his speech, Hilario described how he had to abandon the vehicle after being diverted by the Local Police in Torrent due to a closure on the AP-7. “They told me to turn back, but the alternative path took us to a very complicated area. I didn’t see the Civil Guard; it was the Local Police that redirected us,” he said in his conversation with Nuria Roca.

The situation soon became critical for Hilario, who had to get out of his car as best he could and cling to a guardrail, where he remained for around six hours enduring extreme conditions until reaching the point of hypothermia “I was falling asleep, with hypothermia… everything, inside of the water,” he shared, remembering the hours of anguish.

The victims from the passage of the DANA already reach 214 dead and the search for missing persons continues, mainly in garages and parking lots of supermarkets and shopping centers.

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The parking lot of Bonaire shopping centerthe largest in the province of Valencia, has become one of the most critical points of the rescue and cleanup operation after the devastating DANA that has hit the region. With a capacity to house up to 5,700 vehicles, the exterior area is covered by a thick layer of mud, while the underground areas still retain one and a half meters of water, complicating the work of emergency teams.

Since last Wednesday, members of the Military Emergency Unit (UME) have been working tirelessly to extract water and mud from the parking lot. However, the spokesman for the EMU in the area has confirmed that the exact number of affected vehicles and whether there are people trapped in this underground is still unknown.

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The work is carried out in a highly difficult environment. A first inspection with a boat did not achieve definitive results, since the accumulated water completely covered the vehicles and visibility was minimal. This morning a second intervention was deployed using a boat and several kayaks, and divers are already ready to enter and check the area.

The Bonaire shopping center, located near the municipality of Aldaia —another town seriously affected by the catastrophe— is the epicenter of an arduous operation that mobilizes dozens of troops and technical means, in a race against time to secure the area and guarantee that no people are trapped.