A Spanish research vessel that investigates marine ecosystems has been called to help recover nearly 100 people thought dead after devastating floods as the family of two young brothers still missing reveal their heartbreak.
The 24 crew members aboard the Ramon Margalef were preparing on Friday to use its sensors and submersible robot to map an offshore area of 14 square miles — the equivalent of more than 5,000 football fields — to see if they can locate vehicles that last week’s catastrophic floods swept into the Mediterranean Sea.
The hope is that a map of sunken vehicles could lead to the recovery of bodies. Nearly 100 people have been officially marked as missing, and authorities admit there are likely more people unaccounted for in addition to more than 200 already declared dead.
Among the missing are five-year-old Izan Matias and his younger brother Ruben, three, who were swept away on 29 October after a year’s worth of rain fell in a matter of hours in Valencia and the wider region.
At least 219 people have been killed as a result of the floods.
Amid the sheer volume of death, the story of the Matias family has drawn significant attention in Spain, with many following updates on “Los niños desaparecidos”, which translates to “the missing children”.
The tragic chronology of events that led to the two boys going missing has been pieced together from testimonies of neighbours, relatives, and local media.
Father Victor Matias had quickly changed his plans that day, fearing the approaching storm.
After leaving work early, he picked up his boys from nursery and was about to make their favourite dinner of croquetas. The boys’ mother, Marta, meanwhile, was starting her late shift at a nearby shop.
Then the heavy rains started to fall.
Their grandmother, Antonia Maria Matias, a 72-year-old cancer patient, told ABC Sevilla she had called her son Mr Matias around 6pm and heard the boys crying as the water rose.
As the Matias house flooded, it was sliced open by a lorry carried by the rushing water, sending the boys and their father into the torrent, according to a neighbour and the boys’ aunt.
The official red alert to evacuate was sent to their mobile phones hours later when it was too late.
Mr Matias had grabbed his sons as the house began to collapse but the water took them. The father was found hours later, clinging to a tree, his boys nowhere in sight.
His mother - the boys’ grandmother - revealed Mr Matias had been ready to surrender to the torrent but stopped, telling himself he could not leave his wife alone.
All that was left of the house was the door to the boys’ bedroom, their names still visibly etched onto the entrance. It stood amid a jumble of broken metal, crumpled furniture, upturned cars and a sea of mud.
Izan and Ruben’s aunt, Barbara Sastre, described them to the BBC as “bichetes” - meaning endearing little bugs who buzzed around - or said they were absorbed in their cartoons.
Despite intensive daily searches by neighbours, police, firefighters, and volunteers, the brothers have not been found.
Relatives say they can’t describe what Ms Matias, the boys’ mother, is experiencing. She only found out her sons were missing the morning after they had been swept away.
The grandmother said her son’s life had “turned to dust”.
Mr Matias, recovering in hospital, now sleeps with his sons’ blankets, the closest he can be to them.
