Flood-hit family of seven near San Roque still waiting for promised help as officials stay silent

A family of seven near San Martín del Tesorillo, close to San Roque in Cadiz Province, has been hit by three devastating floods this year. Their home sat under four feet of water. Everything they owned was destroyed, and they could not return for 11 days.

Earlier Euro Weekly News reports told of the first two disasters after Storm Francis and Storm Leonardo. Furniture, appliances, clothes, family photos and irreplaceable keepsakes vanished under mud and water. Local supporters at the Rose and Thistle in Puerto de la Duquesa raised more than €1,000 plus bedding, clothing and a heater. Yet the house remains almost uninhabitable.

Promises of cash and repairs have vanished without a single word

Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez visited San Roque during the media storm. Officials pledged financial help, money for repairs and support for temporary living costs. Forms were completed. Every ID was handed into the town hall. Then… silence. No phone call. No letter. No update of any kind.

“We feel that page was folded away and we were forgotten about,” the family’s father said. “We want to know what help and where is it and when will it be???? It is with sadness that we feel that all the front page of what the town hall were doing at that time was a media attention.”

Roads that never touched floodwater are being repaired. Two extra police officers have been hired. Concrete help for families who lost everything remains invisible. “Who else got any help? Is there a way for someone to know where it all went?” he asked.

Charity leftovers and empty bank accounts compound the pain

Appeals for a fridge, washing machine or proper oven met the same reply: everything had already gone. One tiny single-person oven arrived for a household of seven. “You cannot even cook a chicken in it,” he told us.

Every euro of their savings, plus the small charity money, went on temporary accommodation and private crews to clear the sludge. Utility bills kept arriving for a house with no power and no water. “We are still broken from the lasting damage that the floods has caused us,” he added.

He also believes the property should never have been sold as a home. Built in a known flood zone, it was, in his view, an illegal house that local government allowed onto the market. Permissions were granted that never should have been.

This is a typical story in Spain. Homes built in potential flood plains, often originally intended for agricultural use on county hills, remain vulnerable in heavy storms. Many were quietly signed off as livable housing without the proper safety studies. Even though the law has improved in recent years, such properties can still be found on the market. One family house was sold as safe to live in when it clearly was not. So who is left to pick up the bill?

Next winter looms while official help stays missing

Repairs remain unfinished. This family of seven, including disabled children and a baby, now faces another rainy season with nothing left to lose. “We need our voices heard to all the ones who lost everything for families and disabled kids and babies not the avocado fields and the agricultural owners,” the family pleaded.

Previous Euro Weekly News coverage showed their GoFundMe push for safer housing after the second flood wiped out every scrap of progress. Months later, the official help they were promised has still not arrived.