“That parking lot is a cemetery.”
These are the first words of the Ume military divers who managed to enter the completely flooded underground car park of the enormous Bonaire shopping centre, near the city of Aldaya. At the time of the flooding, Tuesday afternoon, clothing stores, restaurants and cinemas were open and there were hundreds of people in the area. Here too the water level has risen to three metres, and the car park, with 5,700 spaces available, has become a real death trap. According to rescue sources, quoted by the newspaper eldiario.es, the victims may be “incalculable”.
Macabre irony of fate, as we read on the Bonaire website, the car park transformed into a death trap on Tuesday was “free and for an unlimited time”. Even the access from the escalators to the shopping center is completely devastated, blocked not only by the water but also by the remains and debris brought by the violence of the flood. Even getting out of there was impossible.
According to the local press, this car park is one of the points of greatest concern for the rescue teams. There is still no official news but it has emerged that there are many bodies inside. Together with the divers who are working in extremely difficult conditions, the firefighters are also on site and are working tirelessly with their pumps to empty the car park of water.
