Valencia still struggling to recover from devastating floods

Much of the damage has been caused on industrial estates. Diego Romá, executive president of the federation of industrial estates in the Valencia region (Feteval), says that “thousands and thousands of jobs are in the air” and that a total of 58 industrial estates were affected by the flood water.

“Most companies are working hard to resume production, but unfortunately there are maybe 10 to 20% of companies which are going to close,” he said.

The legacy of 29 October is still visible on the industrial estates. Abandoned cars sit on the side of the road covered in mud, debris has been pushed up against walls and the shutters of many businesses remain closed.

Electro Fernández, an electricity installation company, is one of the few which has reopened, having lost €40,000 ($42,000; £33,000) worth of tools in the floods.

“We were immediately affected 100% because we lost our tools and vehicles,” said Patricia Muñoz, who co-owns the company with her husband. She says that they are currently working at 10% of their capacity.

“We’ve cleaned the place, we’ve got all our employees here, and we’ve taken action to get going again,” she says. “But a lot of the companies on this industrial estate, and on others are nowhere near that, they are still cleaning up.

“This has been an absolute disaster. You only realise the scale of it when you see it for yourself.”