Benidorm sends fifty trucks with tons of aid to the province of Valencia for those affected by the DANA

• The massive response from citizens has allowed the collection of around 85,000 litres of water, more than 30,000 litres of milk and hundreds of kilos of clothing and food, hygiene and cleaning products.
• The mayor thanks the citizens for their “unlimited collaboration” and says that if the emergency coordinator requests new needs, the population will be informed.

Benidorm City Council has sent a total of 50 trailers, trucks and vans with tons of essential products to the province of Valencia to help people who have been affected by the DANA over the two days in which the donation collection point set up at the Palau d'Esports l'Illa has been operational. This was conveyed by the mayor of the city, Toni Pérez, who thanked the “unlimited solidarity and collaboration” of the citizens and numerous local companies “to help in the face of a catastrophe of still incalculable dimensions”. 

The mayor stressed that the massive response of the people of Benidorm has allowed nearly 85,000 litres of water, more than 30,000 litres of milk and hundreds of kilos of clothing, footwear, rain boots, food products and disinfection and cleaning products and materials, such as bleach, gloves, rubbish bags, buckets, brooms, shovels, etc., to be sent to the most affected areas in these two days. 

In addition to all this material, there have also been more than 180,000 masks that have been delivered directly to different towns; nappies and specific food for babies; toilet paper; personal hygiene products; gauze and compresses; medicines or pet food, thus attending to "the needs that the emergency coordinator has conveyed to us as most urgent in order to care for those affected in these first days" since the tragedy, he explained. 

In addition to the contributions that have reached the Palau through anonymous citizens, the City Council has also channelled from this collection point to the province of Valencia material and food items collected through other solidarity initiatives, organised by different social groups in different parts of the city. 

Toni Pérez has conveyed his gratitude on behalf of all citizens to "the thousands of people who during these days have come to the Palau d'Esports to collaborate, either through donations or as volunteers helping to unload, select, pack and load the hundreds of pallets" that have travelled from Benidorm to the towns affected by the DANA. In addition, he has extended this gratitude to "the local companies and concessionaires that have provided material and vehicles, as well as to the workers of these concessionaires who, together with the Local Police and volunteers, have been part of the expeditions to transport these trucks" to the so-called 'ground zero'.

Specifically, the mayor recalled that the first trucks sent to the site on Saturday took the material collected at the Palau to the IKEA media reception centre, to the Ciutat de les Arts i les Ciències in Valencia and to Ford in Almussafes. Material was also taken to other reception centres, including those located in the towns of Picassent, the municipal sports centre and the Vicent Andrés Estellés Municipal Centre in Aldaia, Benetússer, Algemesí, or the advanced command post in Paiporta, "from where the distribution to the rest of the towns and people in need is coordinated".

Finally, the mayor has indicated that, once these two days of collection and delivery have been completed, the City Council “will temporarily stop collecting donations, as requested by the emergency coordinator, but continues to wait for new needs to be communicated to us, of which we will duly inform the population so that they can continue to collaborate”. Toni Pérez has reiterated his “enormous gratitude to Benidorm for its great response to this emergency. We are a caring city and we have demonstrated it again”, he concluded. 

Elsewhere in our area, there has been a huge response of support with collections taking place in La Vila Joiosa, Finestrat, La Nucia and L'Afaz.