Spaniards Race to Save Memories After Deadly Floods

Hundreds of photographs hang to dry in a laboratory, fragile reminders of birthday celebrations and summer holidays nearly swept away by last year’s devastating floods in Spain.

Thanks to a university-led initiative, many of these treasured memories have been rescued from destruction.

Students at Valencia’s Polytechnic University, dressed in white lab coats and masks to protect themselves from mould and other contaminants, carefully clean and restore the photographs. A sign beside a pile of mud-stained photo albums warns: “Do not touch. Contaminated material.”

Nearby, a stack of empty photo albums still bears traces of mud from the torrential rains of 29 October 2024, which swept through parts of the Mediterranean region of Valencia, killing more than 200 people and destroying thousands of homes.

In the chaos that followed, a wave of volunteers rushed to help residents clear the 800,000 tonnes of debris left by Spain’s deadliest natural disaster in a generation and salvage whatever they could.

“We started getting calls from students who were helping in the affected areas and noticed that entire albums of photographs were being thrown away,” said Esther Nebot, a professor at the university and co-director of the project Salvem les fotos (“Let’s Save the Photos”).
“Those same students began collecting photographs in their backpacks,” she added, pointing to the freezers where the damaged images were stored before being painstakingly restored.

Project Achievements

Nebot highlighted the broader significance of the project: “The disaster caused enormous losses at the documentary and historical level, and above all at the social level. Many objects don’t have economic value, or even historical significance, but they carry immense emotional weight.”

Using a small brush and a bucket of increasingly murky water, doctoral student Ruth Acuna delicately cleans a black-and-white photograph showing the faint portrait of a woman.

“Sometimes you see a photo and think, ‘this won’t survive,’ and suddenly it comes out perfect. It’s incredibly satisfying,” said the 25-year-old, who has been with the project from the start.

At another table, students dismantle warped albums or disinfect and clean faded photographs, which are then hung to dry. The most delicate prints, mostly black and white, are flattened between cardboard sheets to prevent curling.

Some images are so damaged that faces are nearly unrecognisable, yet others slowly reveal fragments of life once more.

“It’s very rewarding to clean photos and, especially when they’re badly damaged, see a face emerge,” said student Andrea Baldwin, gently wiping a photo with cotton.
“It fulfils you to know families can see these memories again together.”

In an adjacent room, students digitise and categorise the images, preparing them to be returned to their owners in formats resembling the original albums.

Nebot noted that the moment restored photos are returned is often highly emotional, particularly for families still without homes:“We have cried a lot. We set aside time to show them how we handled their photos, and it’s also a way to thank them for their trust.”