He speaks of a near-death experience, a flooded car, a dark tunnel and gushing water. But Marco Audino’s voice is utterly calm as he recounts what happened to him during Monday’s storm.
I was scared but I could not panic
Sitting at the living room table in his Sliema apartment, the 25-year-old translator and martial artist even smiles as he plays back the terrifying scenes of that fateful day when his car stalled in a flood just outside the St Venera tunnels.
He was on his way to his sister’s house in St Julian’s but a phone call from a friend changed his plans. He headed instead for Xgħajra and 15 minutes later was on Regional Road, heading southward towards the St Venera tunnels.
“When I entered the tunnel it was drizzling. Traffic was moving slowly and I spent some 15 minutes in the tunnel but when I came out from the other side it was hell,” he says.
The water was up to the handles of his Renault Megane. At one point a sudden gush of water came down the slipway that leads to Marsa. His car was completely submerged and floating.
“I unfastened my seatbelt. The car’s electronics went haywire and I could not open the door. I saw two brave policemen rescue a man from another car that was in a worse state then mine. They then tried to reach me but to no avail,” he recalls. One of the policemen was even carried by the current and clung on to a tree.
The situation got worse. A wooden plank lodged itself under his car, tilted it forward and for a couple of seconds his car turned into “an aquarium”. He could not breathe.
Mr Audino instinctively kicked the door. It opened after four kicks. Just before getting out of the car he grabbed his mobile phone and packet of cigarettes... both wet and useless.
The water dragged him towards a low wall. He sat on it mulling what his next move should be. The water was rising fast but a few metres away, he saw a woman trapped in a yellow Citroen. She later turned out to be Joanne Zammit, 36, from Żejtun.
“I jumped into the current and slowly made my way towards her. I opened the door and grabbed her. She was wearing wedges and I told her to remove them,” he recounts.
The two then made it to the wall but their ordeal was only just beginning. Part of the wall collapsed and Ms Zammit fell one storey and was dragged by running water down a drainage tunnel.
Mr Audino clung on to the wall but he could not resist the force of the water and eventually let go. He curled up, knees into the chest, hands covering his head. And let the water drag him along.
He manages a smile and admits: “These were the scariest moments of my life.”
Underwater, in the dark and not knowing where he was being dragged, Marco thought this was his end. “I said to myself, this is September 3, 4.45pm and it’s over.”
As the seconds ticked by something happened. His head suddenly popped out of the water and air gushed back into his lungs. He vomited the water and realised he was still alive.
“I made my way towards one of the sides of the tunnel and clung to the wall. I turned sideways to avoid the direct impact of the current and looked inwards to avoid swallowing water.”
He grasped a pipe stuck to the wall and slowly felt his way back by holding on to grooves in the stonework. He calculated it took him almost an hour to travel a distance of 100 metres out of the tunnel, walking against the current.
“I was hearing Joanne’s voice but I did not know where she was. But at that point I was thinking of saving my life. My strength was sapping,” he admits.
The woman was actually closer to the exit than he was but on the opposite side. She had suffered a broken ankle and could not move.
“I urged her to move towards the iron gate at the tunnel opening but she was not able to. I then told her that I would get out and call for help,” he says, adding this was a psychological turning point for him.
People gathered at the mouth of the tunnel where a crane belonging to Roger Satariano and Son Ltd was being used to save other stranded motorists.
A Bulgarian man standing on a wooden pallet was hauled down, urging him to travel the last few metres.
“I don’t know what happened but I suddenly found myself on this pallet. The Bulgarian man hugged me and that is what I needed. I thanked him several times and informed him that Joanne was still inside and had to be helped urgently.”
She was rescued some time later.
Reflecting on this harrowing experience, Mr Audino says he rationalised the fear and this helped him maintain focus. “I was scared but I could not panic.”
He now wants to return to the drainage tunnel to see where it ends. But the visit will have to be some time in June, on a sunny day with no clouds in sight. Another smile as he says this.