The Military Emergency Unit (UME) has conducted the first inspection this Sunday afternoon in the two underground floors of the huge parking lot of the destroyed Bonaire shopping center in Aldaia, after four days of pumping water with their most powerful pumps. They have confirmed the presence of cars and possible victims, but the very difficult visibility conditions have led to the decision to continue the work on Monday, according to sources familiar with the operation. “There has been a surface reconnaissance with kayaks and divers have entered,” acknowledge official sources from the Ministry of Defence. However, the confirmation and counting of victims is the responsibility of the Cecopi or the Ministry of the Interior, they have added. The total number of parking spaces in the parking lot is 5,700, of which an estimated 2,800 are located in the two basement levels of the building. The anticipation of finding numerous bodies, fueled by misinformation on social media that estimated them in the tens or hundreds, has made Bonaire one of the top global trends.
This morning, a UME spokesperson denied reports that any bodies had been located so far. For a simple reason: the soldiers were only able to enter for a first sweep with a boat on Saturday night, but the large amount of water and mud prevented them from seeing much. The liquid still covers a meter and a half in the underground parking lot and it is unknown how many cars and people the teams may find, the military pointed out to numerous journalists from national and international media outlets. In the same vein, Minister of Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory, Víctor Ángel Torres, announced the deployment of at least 50 troops, equipped with four machines and a kayak. UME personnel are working on removing water from the parking lot of the Bonaire shopping center this Sunday. The UME plans to gain access to the facilities on Sunday night, as the weather forecast predicts heavy rains in the area. Unit sources also indicate that it is very possible that the second underground level was not operational at the time of the flood. They suggest it is only used during peak periods with high public traffic, such as during Christmas. Nevertheless, the possibility that there were no vehicles in that level when the deluge arrived is just a hypothesis.
The impact of rumors and the situation of the huge flooded parking lot on social media has led to the presence of numerous media outlets, which have been stationed for most of the day in one of the stores in the center, at a considerable distance from the parking entrances, where the teams’ activity is frantic. This Sunday, two participants in the protest against the convoy consisting of the King, the Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, and the President of the Generalitat, Carlos Mazón, have pointed to the alleged “silenced” dead of Bonaire as an example of manipulation by the authorities.
