From the roof of her car, where she had taken refuge with her three-month-old daughter in her arms, Lourdes María García made her friend promise, during a last phone call, that she would take care of her other two children, ages 10 and 13. .
Spanish authorities announced this Wednesday night, October 30, that they had found the bodies of Lourdes, 34, and her daughter Angeline. Their relatives had been looking for them and had been worried since the day before, when they were last seen on the roof of their car, swept away by the waves.
Southeastern Spain was hit by terrible floods on Tuesday, killing at least 158 people. In Paiporta, in the southern suburb of Valencia, more than forty people died.
Lourdes María García and her companion left from this town at the end of the day to reach Valencia, after seeing that the bad weather was getting worse.
“The car was going in the wrong direction.”
Unfortunately, his car got caught in the waves. “The car started to float. To anchor it I tried to get out of the window, because the water was already a meter and a half high, but the force was brutal,” Antonio Tarazona, Lourdes’ spouse, told El País.
“I managed to get out of the car and when I tried to get the baby out, the current dragged me and I tripped over something. The car went in the wrong direction,” he continues.
The last time he saw Lourdes and little Angeline, they had climbed onto the roof of the vehicle and were asking for help. He tried to chase them, but to no avail.
His other two children safe and sound
Wounded, Antonio was rescued and remained for hours in a shelter room, hoping that his wife and daughter would be taken to the same place.
Lourdes’ relatives remained without news for many hours. “She is my best friend, I am her children’s aunt, not by blood, but we are like sisters, and I still don’t know anything about them,” Andreina Molina told El País.
Shortly after separating from her partner, Lourdes called her friend and family nanny, Clara Andrés, by phone, who tells El Mundo that the young mother told her, from the roof of her car, that “she was afraid” and that tried to hold on. as long as possible to try to save her daughter’s life.
Fearing the worst, Lourdes also asked Clara to promise that she would take care of her other two children. After this heartbreaking call, Lourdes and Angeline’s loved ones had no further news before their bodies were found.
Keeping her promise, Clara Andrés walked to Paiporta from her home in Torrent, six kilometers away, to pick up Sofía, 10, and Bajix, 13, Lourdes’ other two children. They are safe and sound, but they had spent the night alone, without electricity or telephone network.
Source: BFM TV
