Family find 'dana' disaster victim through TikTok video

Hearing the stories of the families of the 'dana' victims is still heart-breaking, even a year after the disaster that took the lives of 230 people in Valencia.

Judge Nuria Ruiz Tobarra continues collecting testimonies that move anybody who hears them. One such testimony is that of a woman who found the vehicle in which her grandfather died on 29 October thanks to a video posted on TikTok.

The woman testified before the magistrate investigating the possible criminal responsibilities of the emergency management of 29 October 2024 that she had a "very close" relationship with her grandfather, for he was like her father. It was she who found his body after walking from Valencia to the road where the family had received notice that his vehicle might be.

Meanwhile, her mother explained in court that her father "was very independent, coming and going without telling anyone", and that the flood had turned the V-30 road into a "trap". When she arrived at her home, her mother informed her that he had left the family home at 6.30pm However, it was not until around 7.30pm that she saw a wave of water approaching. She told the judge that residents in the town were used to floods, "but not a tsunami".

The woman pulled herself together and managed to get her mother upstairs when the house was flooding. The water was up to her waist. Although she managed to get to safety, she never thought that anything had happened to her father. Her daughter was in Valencia and her son in Chiva, the latter also trapped inside his car.

Even so, that night they all went to bed thinking that the man would return in the early hours of the morning, which never happened. Realising that he was still missing at dawn, the deceased's daughter headed to the Local Police, but got stuck in the mud. She saw a friend who was a police officer and told him that her father had not returned home. The man told her that Picanya, as they had known it, no longer existed.

The hardest moment of the story came when the granddaughter confirmed that her grandfather had died during the darkest afternoon in the history of Valencia, after verifying that the body resting in the vehicle she had found through a TikTok video was that of her loved one. The personnel from the military emergency unit (Ume) from Zaragoza, who were working nearby, became her greatest emotional support, accompanying her "at all times" through the tragedy. Her mother thanked the soldiers for both their help and the care they showed her daughter, whom they later invited "for a coffee".

The psychological aftermath of the tragedy is evident in their cases. The granddaughter has been on medical leave for six months and has been on antidepressants for a year. Both mother and granddaughter told Judge Ruiz Tobarra that they wished to be recognised by the forensic doctor and authorised the Abucasis app to access medical records. They are now fighting to claim any potential compensation that may arise from criminal liability for the death of they father and grandfather.

In response to one of the lawyers, the daughter said that the ES-Alert "arrived when everything was already flooded and coming with great force".

The woman testified before the magistrate that the mass mobile alert "arrived late" while "everyone was going about their normal lives". We had no idea how dangerous it was," she stated.