'It is all in ruins.' The shattered lives of Paiporta at the epicenter of Spain's floods
Four days have passed since tsunami-like floods swept through the southern outskirts of Valencia city, covering many communities with sticky, thick mud
PAIPORTA, Spain (AP) — The pictures of the smiling toddlers on the wall somehow survived.
Most everything else in the daycare — the cradles, the highchairs, the toys — was ruined when a crushing wall of water swept through Paiporta, turning the Valencia municipality of 30,000 into the likely epicenter of Spain's deadliest natural disaster in living memory.
“We have lost everything,” Xavi Pons told The Associated Press. He said the water level was above his head inside what had been the daycare run by his wife’s family for half a century, and he pointed to the knee-high mark where the mud reached.
“I have lived here all my life. This had never happened and nobody could have imagined it would,” Pons said. “All of Paiporta is like this, it is all in ruins.”
