Next October is reached the fifty anniversary of the great flood that destroyed Valencia on 14th October of 1957. From this web we want to recall those tragic days and to relate superficially that event that so much affected to the lives and properties of the neighbours of our neighbourhood.

Let´s get a position on Saturday, 12th October, Pilar Day. That journey was raining intensely on the city. Many valency celebrated the festivity of the day or spent it enjoying with the family in the intimacy of their households. The families that had a good number of their afflicted relatives with a strong flu called "the Asian" and that was producing discomfort and very high fever. It was raining so much that the la Corrida de la Prensa was postponed. However, nobody could think about the great tragedy that was on the point of arriving.

On the following day, 13 th October, at theybreak it almost does not rain, it do it without intensity, but it was a nasty day. It was Sunday and the neighbours left s home to attend Mass. In the afternoon, since it was not raining, a lot of people went to the cinema. To the Lys that it had programmed "The Último Cuplé", to the Goya with "Sissi Empress" or to the Olimpia that was offering the film "Typhoon on Nagasaki" (curious title, taking into account what would happen some hours after).

Vallejo's Field was plenty of supporters that attended to enjoy the soccer match that faced to the Levante against the Tetuán and that had as a result a tie.

In the Asylum of the Hermanitas, people was striven to climb the elders to the upper floors and a nun reached to save the sacrarium. The waters reached two meters and a half. Really near, in San Eugenio Asylum, more than two hundred children were put in a safeplace by the Daughters of the Charity that were governing the orphanage.

The force of the water broke the doors of the Monastery of the Trinidad and flooded the monastery. In St. Christopher was sheltered to the refugees of the neighbouring "Corralot", a set of located low houses very about Monastery.

At Viveros fence was found the corpse of Micaela Chulvi Benaches, 84 years old. Even though her death was not caused by the flood, Micaela had expired in her domicile of Vuelta del Ruiseñor street, that afternoon. The relatives were sat up with the corpse when the water arrived. The water force entered the house with force dragging the body until the place she was found. Near here, two persons had expired too; Daniel Camarena Bernat in 75th Sagunto street and the corpse of a man without identifying, that appeared in 3th Fabián y Fuero street.

After some distress hours, the water reached its maximum level at four o'clock in the morning, from that moment it started to decreased. It was the moment of proving the damages caused in the housings and trades of the street. The first lights of the day invited to this. The damages were centered substantially in the ground floors.

The situation was chaotic offering Dantesque images; the wood bridge had disappeared, the pharmacy of Santa Amalia plenty of water and mud. Shops, schools.... .

Nobody could imagine that the worst was not arrived yet. In the afternoon of 14 th October, by 14 hours, an enormous flood worse that the previous, inundated the neighbourhood. At many place the water reached almost three meters of height.

At this bank of the river was reached the highest level in Doctor Oloriz street, exceeding in that place the five meters. In our neighbourhood were not reached those levels, but yet we can prove as in the church of Santa Mónica a plate testifies to the height reached by the waters "until here arrived the flood". In the same square the water reached the balconies of the first floors

After this second flood the view was distressing: the Vallejo Field was totally under water, the damages in the Monastery of the Trinidad were abundant, the church of the Carmen inundated, the same as that of Santa Mónica and the Asylum of the Hermanitas de los Desamparados, the Museum of Fine Arts...

From the six and a half the water began to decrease. That same afternoon arrived the first helps. They were the Firemen of Cartagena. They were the first in entering the city and soon the were seen helping in the surronoundings of Trinidad bridge.

After the waters were removed it appeared the mud, enormous quantities were covering the streets of the neighbourhood. Valencians got on with it. streets, shops, houses, churches, asylums and convents had to be clean as soon as possible. The effort was huge, but all together carried it out.

In most neighbourhoods this works were promoted by the parish priests in which the neighbours were collaborating. Then it would arrive the army and the Americans with their machinery. The Navy brought some bread and the own neighbourgs helped each other lent them lodging or foods.

A great current of solidarity was extended all over the nation. All Spain was wanting to help and Juventud de Murcia Radio knew how to channel, as nobody did, the people anxieties of aiding. It put under way a beneficial auction on behalf of the damaged of Valencia. the success of the program was so much that even South American radios were connected to the emission. What is more, a dunkey called Platero and the ring of the archbishop Sir Marcelino Olaechea, that so much made by the most modest classes of our land, were sell at the auction.

The flood let almost a hundred of died in the province. The exact figure never was known. But it also let a great torrent of brotherhood, helping one each others wherever they were or whatever their thinking was. Solidary current that was extended to the rest of the country.

In spite of the shown generosity, most people had to start from scratch. Many assurance companies did not paid, claiming that the houses and shops were too near the river and subsidies, grants, compensations...or similar words were made reality in the pockets of some few lucky.

29th November 1957 be consider concluded the battle against the mud. Even though the remains of the tragedy no longer exist, those days stay very live in the memory of every person who lived the tragedy.

I.J.P. Article of the Book - Holidays program 2007