Photo: Albert García / El País

If the images of cars dragged by the flood waters along a street in the municipality of Sedaví are the best picture of the violence of nature in its catastrophic reply to the artificial environment, that of volunteers crowded together along a footbridge in Valencia’s City of Arts and Sciences is an eloquent testimony of the surge of citizen solidarity amid the impotence of the authorities, who have organized the aid effort with a sheer lack of diligence: yet another element contributing to the desperate outrage of those who have waited for days to receive basic assistance. 

Vehicles are massed together like a herd of mechanical animals in a stampede, and piled up one atop another as in the aftermath of a major road accident, concealing in their frozen chaos the possible presence of casualties and survivors inside, as verified in many cases, making this cemetery of cars a tragic burial mound. For its part, the tight multitude of sympathetic people, willling to parade in silence to lend a hand in the effort, strikes a shocking contrast with the monumental empty stairs and the sculptural shapes of a construction that has been a symbol of a city proud of its achievements and now in mourning for the victims, while anger fumes at the inefficacy of institutions.