by Carlos Cristian Arruebo (AEPY yoga teacher)
A karma yoga experience after Storm Dana in Spain
The floods in Spain caused by Storm Dana at the end of October affected several communities. In the southern area of Valencia, it was a catastrophe, leaving much of the population without electricity or drinking water for weeks.
The people of Valencia and other cities, seeing what had happened and the need for help, began to organise and help however they could. The main issue in the first few days was that, amidst the mud, the cars, and everything the flood had dragged along with it, there were human and animal corpses. The organisation ‘Igualdad Animal’ counted 2,950 dead farm animals on just 17 livestock farms, and according to the government, there were 232 human fatalities, 219 of which were in the same area of Valencia.
I was teaching during the week, and the first weekend I was leading a yoga retreat, so I could only go to help two weeks after the storm. Even though I was in contact with local people and official media, I couldn’t fully grasp the situation until the first day, when we went to the town of Benetússer. I was shocked to see how the river of mud had reached a height of 1.8 metres in the streets. Everything – cars, walls of houses, the contents of shopping centres and petrol stations – was scattered wherever the flood had dragged it.
On social media volunteers offered help wherever it was needed. They would give us a time and place, ask if we had waterproof boots and gloves, or help get what we needed. Our coordinator was a woman from Benetússer who still didn’t have running water in her home. We started working in a feline colony, where we had to spread dirt so the cats could walk without getting stuck in the mud. While we worked, she explained how, on the first day, she saw some heartless people taking advantage of the situation to steal, while others were focused on rescuing people trapped on the upper floors. She told us that the most beautiful part of everything was seeing the number of volunteers who had shown up to help — people from all over who had never been there before and didn’t hesitate to get organised and come.
Leaving Benetússer, we crossed the main street and saw some makeshift stalls in vans and camping tables with essential items, portable showers, and health and psychological care. I was struck by a café that had been destroyed: it no longer had any walls, and the owners were boiling water on a stove to serve coffee to customers who sat wherever they could, amidst the rubble, as if it were completely normal.
I realised we are much more vulnerable than I had previously thought, and I was deeply moved by the spontaneous and selfless reactions of people who, ‘without thinking’, immediately set out to help. I hope that, if a similar event ever happens again, there will be an early warning system, and we will only have to mourn material losses.
Stay strong, Valencia!
