He still hasn’t slept a wink since yesterday. When the DANA began to hit Valencia with force and many people affected were unaccounted for, the Ibizan Andru Molina thought a great way to help would be create an interactive map with Google so that both people who were trapped and those trying to locate a loved one could communicate.
And he has succeeded: hundreds of people affected by the DANA have used his map to ask for help and he knows that it has helped the emergency services in Valencia to to locate and rescue some of them citizens. “It’s been tough. Throughout the night I followed the situation of a girl who put her location on the map explaining that she was locked in a house with two small children. I believe the water washed a man into their dwelling and they were all four there, but the gentleman was injured and as the hours went on his health got worse and worse. In the end the woman explained that she had passed away before they could arrive to help them,” says Andru Molina.
The interactive map is like a Google Maps where those who need help can mark their location so that they can be helped. The map has received almost 80,000 visits, and a quick glance is enough to understand the magnitude of the disaster: An old woman trapped alone in her house, a woman who hasn’t eaten since yesterday, locked in a factory…
This is how it all began
Andru was about to go to bed after midnight last night when he decided to take a look at the weather forecast, something he became fond of after Hurricane Milton, and saw that chaos was coming. Shortly after the disaster began in Valencia and he realized that no one was giving a public service so that those who were in trouble could communicate beyond the emergency phones, which were collapsed. So he devised the interactive map and put it on X (formerly Twitter).
A few minutes later it was already being used by hundreds of Valencians with problems: people trapped in houses, on bridges, inside cars, on rooftops…. “I don’t have anyone I know in Valencia, but it seemed essential to lend a hand because I know that when someone is in trouble, any kind of help is essential,” explains the 37-year-old musician.
This was around 3:30 this morning and today at 3 p.m. he still hadn’t gotten up from his chair and in front of his computer. “Only once to go to the bathroom. I have to monitor the locationsi have to monitor the locations[]putting the degree of severity in different colors and deleting the ones that are resolved,” he adds. “I’m not going to turn off the computer until the map is empty“he promises. As of mid-afternoon today, about 100 locations were still active on the map, which translates to about 200 people who still need him.
Despite the misfortunes he is witnessing, he has also received thanks from many who have been rescued or found a missing family member thanks to his mapmore than twenty have thanked me through messages”, Andru proudly tells us.
For the full article, please visit Diario de Ibiza website here.