Five months without elevator for the Dana: « It’s amazing how life can change you, and my son much more » | News from the Valencian Community

Nicolás García Costa You need a routine to live, security, follow the same ritual every day. The changes make him nervous, unbalanced, the schemes break him. And his life has changed completely since, on October 29, The Dana strengthened with everything on the main avenue of the Barrio de la Torre de Valencia. The 21 -year -old, with autistic spectrum syndrome, saw everything from his room, on a second floor. He does not forget, but what has upset his existence is one of the consequences initially more unnoticed and that, with the passing of the months, has been formed as a serious problem: the fault of the elevator of his building.

Five months after the water tsunami, mud and reeds took The life of 227 people, Numerous neighbors live trapped in their homes because they cannot go down to the street or need help to do so. They are older people, with reduced mobility or with some type of disability, mostly. The Valencian vice president for reconstruction after the Dana, Francisco José Gan Pampols, said last week in his diagnosis of the catastrophe that about 6,000 of the 10,000 affected elevators are still spoiled and that the global cost of repair can amount to 160 million euros.

Emilio Carbonell, president of the Valencian Professional Association of Elevators (Ascencoval), suggests that this estimate is not updated and reduces it to a maximum of 3,000 elevators. The Ministry of Social Services, which runs the vice president of the Generalitat, Susana Camarero, in coordination with the entities that work on the land, has identified “a total of 311 buildings in which people with reduced mobility live”, to which they are provided attention of different types, but does not have an estimate of the total number of people affected whose number is varying. There is also the possibility of realizing the most vulnerable cases, but people « always prefer to stay at home and fix the elevator, as is normal, » says Camarero.

“Nico is afraid to see the lift pit that is down there, with the average open door, and go to the stairs. It is incredible how an elevator can change your life, and my son much more. A fucking elevator. We have to prepare it between his mother and me to go down and climb. He cannot be alone. In a long process. Now we try to leave every day, but until he does nothing he does not go out of home, born athlete, which makes stunts in the elastic bed and has been runner -up of the Valencian Community of Karting”, Explains the father, Sebastián García, while his son nods and smiles, more focused on the photo shoot. The young man, of athletic complexion, has made a fashion model on occasion and is waiting to find a sponsor to resume the KARTSwhere « it is mentalized that you have to control it and disappear its insecurity, » says the father.

In the four -storey tower building, they have been told that the elevator arrangement will cost them about 43,000 euros if in the end they are completely renewed (33,000, if they fix it) and will take at least five months. The neighborhood community has received 24,000 euros from the Insurance Consortium; Others are waiting. Sebastián asks why elevators are not considered a priority emergency, in order to facilitate the arrival of operators from other territories and accelerate the manufacture of pieces and cabins.

Up to 60,000 euros

In a similar sense, the Federation of Associations of People with Physical and Organic Disabilities (Concempfe) is pronounced. Ask to articulate specific aids for the repair and replacement of the elevators « aimed at the communities where the spill is a high cost », with priority for the most vulnerable people. Prices range between 6,000 and 60,000 euros. The Government offers the DANA aid to the communities in a horizontal property regime “that have suffered damage to common elements of general use”, without specifying the case of elevators.

Teresa walks through Paiporta in the direction of the supermarket – « to buy little, which does not weigh much,” he adds – with the help of a walker who leaves in the courtyard to climb supported in the railings. Not being able to leave home, or have the ability to do so, but with such a great effort that it is gradually renouncing it generates problems of different kinds. « In general, physical isolation implies social isolation, which is one of the main risks to mental health. Social relations are a necessity. And in the case of people with disabilities, which are doubly vulnerable, the lack of elevator is one more difficulty, » explains the psychologist Cristina Duque, who works in the Dana area with Concemfe.

María Solaz, 58, suffers from multiple sclerosis. « Arthosis too and now the doctor has told me that I am missing vitamin D. of course, if he has not given me the sun, » he says, animated despite the strong medication and difficulties. He lives on a fourth floor in Aldaia, with two damaged elevators, but has begun to go down to the street to give him the sun and go to the market at least once a week with the help of the Red Cross. They assist it with an caterpillar chair that is saving the steps of the stairs.

Pressing problem

« Some older people in the building go down, but very little Mother of two children, is desperate because they change a medical appointment without taking into account her situation and her voice is broken when she remembers how her husband lost her truck in the floods of October 29, « when in Aldaia he did not fall a drop. » He appreciates the work of the Red Cross, whose technical director in the population, Luis Llorens, affirms: « The damaged elevators is one of the most pressing problems in the populations of the Dana. The Dana has increased unwanted loneliness and the people locked up, especially when they are greater, loses their social and friendship networks. »

Manuel Ramón, 90 -year -old retired chef, used to go down to the street to meet with his acquaintances and friends of Paiporta to hang out on the walk, to the sun, chatting. He has not left five months. « I miss it. Now I just walk a little for the landing of the staircase, with the car. On the street they ask my niece for me, » he says. His niece, Carmen Cano, 63, takes care of him at home: « They are surprised not to see him and some think he has missed. Not with the Covid was at home so much and everything for the elevators. We will see when they fix it. The consortium has paid a part to the community. »

Emilio Carbonell, president of Ascencoval, affects the complexity and diverse casuistry of the problem. They usually install a year between 1,000 and 1,500 elevators in the province per year. Now, the work has multiplied and, although the training of workers has accelerated, they do not supply. He maintains that about 60% of elevators have been repaired, starting with the easiest. He rejects that there has been a rise in prices, as many complain, and remember that farm administrators ask for several budgets and opt for the one that suits them most. And affects the difficulty and the high cost of bringing professionals from other communities and the obligation to stop an elevator if it does not submit to the maintenance work.