THE SHOCK OF THE STORM IN AZUARA: “During the flood he listened to shouts from the living room of my house”

There have barely spent 60 hours since several Aragonese municipalities such as Azuara, Letux, Almonacid de la Cuba, Vinaceite or Herrera de los Navarros, all bordering the provincial limit between Saragossa and Teruel, they saw their normality completely truncated in a matter of minutes. In a dry land territory where Belchite (1,500 inhabitants) is its main reference before reaching the Aragonese capital, the calm disappeared abruptly after the virulent flood of the Aguasvivas River.

Several areas of Aragon are razed behind the storms

The residents of the environment, small and older, still in shock, specify that “never before” had suffered in their own meats the future of a flood of such dimensions that, in effect dominated, flooded without reaction option to all these municipalities. A bloody situation in which it is impossible not to look back and see what happened at the end of 2024 in the province of Valencia, which truncated more than 200 lives and generated numerous material damage that is still far from covering.

Also, during the October DANA, some areas of Aragon were ravaged after the overflow of the Martín River in the Turolense Minera Basin where places like Montalbán or La Hoz de la Vieja try to recover normality after more than six months from the event. He also added the stone river, with Cimballa or Llumes, in the Calatayud region.

The Calatayud region is demoralized after the second “record” in a few weeks

Montalbán has retired 200,000 tons of rubble and bruts from the Dana

Azuara, one of the most affected municipalities

In this new chapter of an extreme and unprecedented weather phenomenon in Aragon, the afternoon of June 13 will not forget for a long time in places like Azuara, town of illustrious such as the doctor Jesús Fleta, the cyclist José Lahoz or the rapper and composer Kase.O.

Azuara Air Panoramic after the flood. Photo: Azuara City Council

There, the River Chambers (tributary of the Aguasvivas), did not support the exponential increase of the flow. He was also added, as Aragón Press/ Aragón Digital has been confirmed, the overflow of the Aguilón Val stream, where different ravines converge and that magnified the cruelty of the event in the lower part of Azuara that became a river with a relentless force.

The result is already by all known: flooded streets and houses, material destruction in each corner and mud as a great protagonist in the “return to calm.” All this was visible from this Saturday, when the town was forced to dawn and, of course, to react. And with a single good news: we must not regret human lives.

“I have friends who have lost everything”

“It was at night and everything happened very fast. He did not give time to anything and we were without light, which created more uncertainty because there were two missing people. There were people in the roofs, and even people with children with the water at the waist and who could no longer access any higher point. Everything that happened.

“My house is close to where the flood went down but it is high. From the living room they heard and we already alert and go down to see,” he continued. “The nurse of the health center was trapped with the water around three hours and a 28 -year -old girl, to whom she surprised a wave of water at her mother’s house by the river, was dragged for 300 meters. He still does not know how she could grab a railing,” said the young woman.

Heavy rains force almost 20 people in Azuara and Letux

Achiques, rafts and nodriza pumps: Firefighters act in Azuara, Lettux and Almonacid de la Cuba

Basic services are missing

First thing on Monday, the panorama continues to be bleak. As they say, all help is little and many are the needs at this time. The damage is numerous and, for example, the light service works thanks to a generator. Another basic service, that of water, is scarce.

“They have established a meeting point where we can shower, but there is little water. Firefighters, which are the ones that have helped the most, are filling the deposits with tanks but they are very large and fail to fill them. The storm has affected the well where the water was taken: the pumps are broken and the contaminated sludge water. The flood also took several towers of light and a transformer in front,”

Dasting in Azuara. Photo: I.S.

Need for foreign aid

So far, during the weekend, the Provincial Council of Zaragoza has already announced A help package Extraordinary with five of millions of euros to undertake the most urgent arrangements. Also from the Aragon government, Vice President Vaquero visited the zero zone this Saturday and President Azcón has done the same on Monday.

The DPZ will allocate eight million euros to the areas affected by floods

The Minister of Development, Octavio López, also on the ground said that at least “six months and six million euros” will be needed to fix the bridges and the main affected communications. For all this, among the neighbors they assume that “very long months” are expected and that “time” will be needed. At the moment they claim all kinds of materials (blades, brooms, water boots and cleaning products) are organizing to spread their needs to the bulk of the population.