A family’s grief after Spain floods | Global News Avenue

Like every parent in Valencia that day, Victor Matias quickly changed his plans because he was worried about what would happen next.

The rain was still pouring down, but now – late afternoon – he had left work early, had safely picked up the children from daycare, and was preparing to make their favorite dinner – croquettes.

Crispy fried mashed potato rolls stuffed with cheese and ham will be a treat for Izan, 5, and Reuben, 3, while their mum Marta ends up at the town supermarket Got the night shift.

We’ve pieced together the tragic events that followed.

Our photos come from the testimonies of neighbors and relatives we spoke to, as well as what Victor was able to recall himself and other first-hand accounts provided to local media.

The tragic story of the Matías family has attracted huge attention in Spain. Many people are following the latest news about “Los niños desaparecidosas” (missing children), as they are often described.

But the family’s grief is also the grief of many, as it unfolds like a nightmare in the Valencia region, which was hit by flash floods nearly two weeks ago that killed at least 219 people.

More than 90 people are still missing.

When we arrived at their home, days after the flood, it was in the middle of a sea of ​​destruction.

When you know all this, this shocking statistic – that parts of Valencia dumped a year’s worth of rain in a matter of hours – becomes easy to believe.

Huge metal containers – wrenched from articulated trucks – sit at unfathomable angles amid a jumble of cars, crumpled furniture and treacherous dirt.

One of the few things still intact is the door to the boys’ bedroom. Bright white letters spelling out their names stand out in the sea of ​​brown.

As their next-door neighbor, Jonathan Perez, searches for his way through the chaos, he begins to relive the horrific series of events. “This is crazy,” he said. “I’ve never seen such power.”

Jonathan explained to us how the strong torrent picked up the trucks parked next door to Mathias’ house, and one of them crashed through the exterior wall.

He said Victor explained to him how he held his sons in his arms as the water dragged them all outside.

Then – despite his desperate attempts to catch them – they disappeared.

About four hours later, Victor was found more than 200 meters away.

He kept clinging to a tree.

His mother, the children’s grandmother, revealed that Victor was ready to plunge into the torrent and surrender to his fate, but then stopped.

He told himself that he could not leave his wife alone.

For Izan, 5, and Rubén, 3, there is no safer place than the playground in their house and garden.

Their aunt, Barbara Sastre, told us they were like little bugs – “bichetes” – an endearing description of how buzzy they were when not attracted to cartoons. Buzzing.

“They are very happy children,” she told us.

Izan and Ruben’s parents bought the property from a man named Francisco Javier Arona.

Javi – as he is known – told Spanish news agency EFE that the house had become a “paradise” for the Matías family.

He said he himself painstakingly built the colonial-style house in La Curra, near Mas del Jutge, over three years.

Harvey said he affixed decorative amphora and delicate clay stars beneath the broad arches.

The cul-de-sac outside has almost no traffic, meaning kids can run around carefree with few apparent dangers.

On October 29th he overheard an approaching storm, which was such a danger that Victor closed his business early and picked up his children from daycare in order to beat the rain. With larger cases, he can keep them safe and dry at home.

The force of the downpour became incredible and soon the power was out.

The brothers’ grandmother Antonia María Matías, a 72-year-old cancer patient, told ABC Seville that she called her son Victor at around 6pm and heard the brothers crying.

The water levels around them kept rising. But nonetheless, they are safe for now.

It may be their safe haven, but their home is also adjacent to a truck park.

Their next-door neighbor, Jonathan Perez, explains how this works to a fatal effect.

“My father told us that a truck hit the back of the house and the force of the water swept everything away,” he said.

“Victor stood firm and held the children in his arms. But then he realized he no longer had them. The water carried away everything in its path,” he explained.

The boys’ aunt, Barbara Sastre, also told us that at least one truck cut open the house in one attack, sending the boys and their father being swept into a nearby ravine.

An unnamed owner of the car park where the truck was located told a newspaper that the truck did not hit his house. He insisted it was the force of the water that caused the fatal damage.

Neighbor Jonathan summed up the intense anger felt by millions of Spaniards. In particular, the fact that the official red alert sent to mobile phones was sent at 8pm – too late.

“They love life and they haven’t even started to be human yet, they’re three and five years old,” he said.

“With better coordination, better management and earlier alerts – even half an hour earlier – these children could have been saved and those parents wouldn’t have gone through hell.”

The entire community of La Curra was shocked and shaken by the intensity of the floods and immediately began a search for the missing Izan and Rubén.

At least, they did when the water receded enough for them to climb out of trees, climb out of cars and try to reorient themselves.

They were helped by police from nearby Alicante, including one of Victor’s friends, who soon arrived and began a desperate search.

But where to start?

Cars, bricks and bed frames were moved hundreds of meters from their original locations.

Firefighters from Mallorca and civil defense volunteers from Ibiza also arrived to search the most difficult-to-reach areas.

Despite nearly two weeks of intensive daily searches, the brothers have not been found.

Hours before everything changed, the boys’ mother, Marta, had started the evening shift at the store, knowing her father would pick them up from school and take them home.

In the early hours of the next morning, she was told her children were missing.

Relatives said they could not describe what Marta was going through.

The boy’s grandmother, Antonia María, said her son Victor’s life had been destroyed – “turned to dust” in her own words.

As he recovered in the hospital, Victor began sleeping with the children’s blankets salvaged from the rubble of their home on his face.

This is the closest he is to them now.