Heroic couple who moved to Spain help people affected by floods

A couple who moved to Spain a month before the country was hit by flash floods were part of a volunteer operation to help rebuild afflicted towns. Hernán Fariñas Vales, 36, and his partner Pippa Jackson moved to Valencia from Brighton in September. Having lived in the UK for 13 years and Brighton for four years, Hernán decided he wanted to “reconnect” with his native country while Pippa, who is British, “wanted to live abroad and experience a new culture”.

Pippa and Hernán lived in Regency Square in Brighton before moving to Spain (Image: Supplied) They were enjoying settling in, “making friends and exploring”, when unprecedented flash flooding hit the region. Hernán said: “We weren’t expecting it. Every now and then there is a flood in this region – we just thought it was another one of those.



“I remember coming home at 8pm and a very loud alarm going off on my phone and the phones of a group of people nearby.” Although Valencia itself emerged relatively unscathed by the flooding, it is the towns surrounding the city which have been most affected. Hernán said: “Someone told me that in an hour, the water level went up from your knee to your face.

Cars were floating down the street like paper ships.” The map shows the areas most affected by flooding (Image: Supplied) Many have criticised a delayed response from the government to send help to those in towns ravaged by flooding, and Hernán said that some people he has spoken to were left for five days without support from emergency services. Keen to help, and in-between jobs, Hernán and Pippa found a group of people on Facebook taking matters into their own hands and mobilising volunteers.

Together they organised an improvised voluntary response to the crisis. Due to severely restricted vehicular access, the volunteers had to walk two hours each way every day to Catarroja, a town 8km from Valencia which is one of the most badly affected. The couple helped clear mud from people's homes and businesses (Image: Supplied) The volunteers helped clear furniture from houses and local businesses, remove mud with pressure machines, clean the streets and provide vital supplies like water, canned food, dehumidifiers and boots – which were in high demand.

On GoFundMe, the group has raised €15,000, €4000 of which has been donated in materials. Hernán said: “There was no help for a long time. It was terrible.

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