More than 200 people were killed when flooding devastated parts of eastern and southern Spain in October. The coastal region of Valencia was hit the hardest. Residents there have been trying to put their lives back together, but businesses are still struggling, and many people are still angry at the local government.
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00:00The devastation of the deadly floods left behind is still immense.
00:03Overnight the catastrophe of the 29th of October
00:07changed the lives of thousands in the province of Valencia.
00:10Normality seems far away and starting over
00:13is a challenge. This metal workshop in the town of Masanasa
00:18is still barely accessible from the outside. Together with volunteers
00:22Joaquin Raga has gotten rid of most of the mud that covered everything.
00:27Approximately two and a half meters.
00:30All of his tools and machines are now useless,
00:33destroyed by sand and rust. He estimates the damage at 60,000 euros
00:38and has now gotten 10,000 euros of financial aid
00:41from the national government. But he won't be able to open for another month
00:46or two.
00:46He's afraid he'll lose his customers.
00:52We get called a lot for repairs, but right now I cannot fix anything.
00:56We are repairing our own things. How are we going to repair for others?
01:00It's impossible right now. Let's see if they can wait a bit.
01:03That would be good. If not, it can't happen.
01:06Things look slightly different a few minutes drive away
01:11in SedabĂ. Thanks to a donation from a Spanish supermarket manager
01:16this butcher just reopened. A relief after long weeks
01:21in crisis mode.
01:25It means a lot to me, seeing people come back in and people not crying
01:29because when the shop was closed they came to hug us and cry.
01:32It was all crying. And now we have a bond with people
01:36that we didn't have before.
01:39Only very few shops are already open though.
01:43Many people still rely on donations,
01:46like here at this church where they get the essentials that they cannot find
01:50locally.
01:51The road to recovery is tough, and for some, unimaginable.
01:55Many here think that most of the deaths could have been avoided
01:59had the regional government alerted people on time.
02:03Mery GarcĂa's father died in the flood.
02:06It took more than 10 days to find his body.
02:09Volunteers dug him out of the mud, and she feels left alone to deal with the trauma.
02:14We are all taking pills.
02:19We are all taking pills to be able to sleep,
02:22because the nightmares are recurring every day. I can't stop to think about
02:26how my father suffered.
02:28He was clinging to a fence without anyone rescuing him.
02:32Life for her and her family will never be the same again.
02:40Mery GarcĂa has sent a petition to Spain's Congress
02:44demanding justice for the dead. Tens of thousands have signed.
02:49Back at the butcher shop, where volunteers from all parts of the country
02:54cleaned and rebuilt the shop again,
02:55giving people back something as normal as grocery shopping.
02:59It seems like nothing has happened
03:02when everything has happened. I'm happy because we were practically abandoned.
03:06We had nowhere to go to buy anything, nothing, not even a simple loaf of bread.
03:11After the horrors people in the region had to endure,
03:17it's the little things that seem like miracles. And they know whom to thank.
03:21There's a saying making the rounds here. Only the people
03:25save the people.
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