The Guardia Civil found a body this Friday in Aldea del Fresno, the city in Madrid most affected by Sunday’s storm. Since then, rescue teams have been searching for the bodies of two missing people: the child’s father, who survived a whole night clinging to a tree, and an 82-year-old man who had left his residence in the neighboring town of Villamanta. Sources in the government delegation report that agents are trying to identify the body.
About 150 people, including firefighters, police and civil protection, have been combing the disaster’s ground zero since Sunday, searching the banks of the Alberche and Perales rivers (southwest of the community) in search of them.
The family’s father, Manuel, 47, was driving the car that was swept away by the storm in Aldea del Fresno on Sunday. His wife and two children survived. His 14-year-old daughter came to the Aldea fire station alone; the mother, Mónica Navarro, was rescued early in the morning by clinging to a tree on the Alberche River; and 10-year-old minor Izan were found Monday morning at the top of an ash tree about seven meters high.
The 82-year-old man is José Aguado, who disappeared after leaving his residence in Villamanta, where he lived with his wife.
Search party sources report that the body was found near the Pedrera Bridge in Aldea del Fresno, which collapsed during the storm. It is the bridge at the end of the town, near the place where Manuel’s wife and son were found alive.
If the body is confirmed to belong to one of the two missing people, Dana’s balance for the weekend would reach six deaths. The others are two canyoning passers-by who died in Tramacastilla de Tena (Huesca) and three in Toledo – a 20-year-old young man found in an elevator in Casarrubios del Monte, another in his vehicle on the A-40 in Bargas and the last, another man of 50, whose body was found in a stream in Camarena.
