The magistrate Lucía Mayordomo, titular of the Court of Instruction number 2 of Torrent, who was on duty in her judicial district on October 29, 2024, the day the dana devastated the province of Valencia, set up a duty court at a gas station in Paiporta on the day of the floods, the only point in the area that had light. «It was very tough,» she recounts.
This is recounted by the judge in a video produced by the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) on the occasion of the six months that have passed this Tuesday since the dana, a tragedy that left 228 dead in Valencia and multimillion-dollar material damage.
In the early hours of October 30, Mayordomo received a call in the early hours, where an agent of the Civil Guard of Paiporta told her that there were deaths in garages and on the public road, so she went there to carry out the body removals.
Along with the forensic doctor and the Civil Guard, the magistrate was «stranded» in an area whose only point with light was a service station, where they decided to set up the duty court. In front of the gas station was the Command Post, which allowed her to «see what was being reported» and then «transmit what is of interest.»
In this context, she explains that «that first screening, when it was chaos at all levels,» had to be done from the field. «That screening allowed us, once in the court, to know exactly how many dead we were talking about, where the bodies were found, and specific circumstances such as tattoos or earrings,» she details.
«That day was very tough and the first 24 hours, especially tough, because you don’t really know what’s going on. Until 48 hours have passed, you don’t know how many towns have been affected,» she recounts, lamenting that with each call they received, more deaths were reported. «These are decisions you can’t avoid, but there was no established protocol, except common sense,» she points out. On the 30th, they began to initiate the first preliminary proceedings for the deceased who were presumably going to arrive.
The magistrate highlights the «knowledge and sensitivity» of the professionals but maintains that they need «more help and more resources.» «If it went well, it’s because everyone, from the judge, the assistant, the processor, the prosecutor, to the janitor who opens the door and the cleaning lady, we all worked,» she emphasizes.
«This worked because no one looked at the clock, or the schedules, or the resources we had. We just thought about getting through the situation. That’s why it went fast,» Mayordomo emphasizes.
For her part, María Espejo, Legal Officers of the Administration of Justice of the Court of Torrent, emphasizes that the officials of said court have been «absolute protagonists of everything working so well.» «When humanity and professionalism come together, everything has to go well. Here we have worked with head and heart,» she emphasizes.
Espejo details that, after collecting her records in the court, she moved to the command post to organize. When she returned to the court a few days later, «everything was already in motion.» «They created a titanic database, a control panel, where data on the deceased were included. Sometimes we only had the location of a body, until the puzzle was completed,» she explains.
Likewise, she emphasizes that they worked with the «security factor.» «No paper came out of here if everything was not properly tied and supervised,» she adds, while praising the function of the «team» of the court. Raquel Cervera, a processor, expresses the same sentiment, highlighting that they formed a team in which «there were no ranks.»
