The alert from the Generalitat Valenciana automatically reached all mobile phones in the province of Valencia at 8:12 p.m. this Tuesday, when many citizens were already trapped on roads, ground floors, urbanizations and even in shopping centers like Bonaire. This is the worst meteorological tragedy since the Tous swamp in 1982. The provisional toll rises to at least 70 deaths.
A source familiar with the ins and outs of regional emergency management maintains that the Generalitat reacted “late.” Even recognizing that there are “unforeseeable components” in a DANA, the same source estimates that the Minister of Justice, Salomé Pradas, convened the Integrated Operational Coordination Center (Cecopi) late: “They should have done it sooner.” This is the body that is installed in this type of situation in the L’Eliana Emergency Coordination Center and that anticipates possible scenarios and necessary resources and coordinates with those responsible for roads and other infrastructure to improve the response with certainty. advance. Another source linked to security considers that there has been “obvious political negligence” and an “unmitigated disaster” due to the “lack of foresight.”
The automatic message sent by the Generalitat at 8:12 p.m. warned of “heavy rains” and asked to avoid traveling by road. However, for many drivers and residents of the province of Valencia, especially in the Ribera and Horta Sud regions, it was already too late. A feeling of chaos – even collapse – settled throughout the province of Valencia and the Utiel-Requena region, the main affected areas. Ten hours earlier, the Aemet warned of the red alert situation in which the province of Valencia found itself and warned of “extreme danger.”
In addition, at 5:30 p.m. the Júcar Hydrographic Confederation warned of the increase in the flow of the Magro River, “which could reach 1,000 m3/s downstream of the Forata reservoir.” Due to this, it activated the hydrological alert and notified the riverside municipalities of the Magro River and the Júcar River “from Algemesí to the mouth in Cullera.” This flow, they explained, “implies that widespread overflows can occur in areas close to the river.”
Hundreds of citizens waiting to be rescued contacted live media such as regional television À Punt, desperately narrating their own situation or that of relatives. Social and family networks were immediately activated and numerous Dantesque videos circulated through WhatsApp messages.
While the Generalitat Valenciana issued mere recommendations until the automatic alert at 8:12 p.m., several public and private institutions put their members on alert for what was coming. In a press conference held at 1 p.m. at the Palau de la Generalitat, Mazón stated: “According to the forecast, the storm is moving towards the Serranía de Cuenca, so it is expected that around 6:00 p.m. it will decrease in intensity throughout the rest of the Valencian Community.
It wasn’t like that. After 9 p.m., President Carlos Mazón appeared at the Emergency Coordination Center, located in l’Eliana, to reiterate the request to the population not to go out on the roads, especially in the province of Valencia, the epicenter of the disaster.
Much earlier, around 5:45 p.m., Adif had already interrupted the circulation of high-speed trains. The Emergency Coordination Center of the Generalitat established the emergency level for the storm in situation 2 of the special flood plan in the province of Valencia at 7:30 p.m., when the Magro river had already overflowed in the municipalities of Carlet and Algemesí .
Collapse of 112
The telephone number 112, of the Emergency Coordination Center of the Generalitat, collapsed due to the avalanche of calls for help. Although it never stopped working (it gave a tone), it took a long time to answer calls. The Generalitat Emergencies warned at night that 112 had not “fallen” but rather that the volume of calls was “high.” Subsequently, the telephone number 900 365 112 was activated to assist the relatives of the missing.
Shortly after seven in the morning this Wednesday, the Generalitat sent an automatic alert message to all mobile phones that reiterated the request to avoid traveling by road. At 10:24 a third automatic alarm sounded. This is the civil protection mobile alert ‘Es-alert’, a massive and direct system of warning to the population that sends a message to each mobile phone with a shrill and repetitive beep.
The responsibility for coordination falls on the Valencian Agency for Security and Emergency Response, headed by the regional secretary, Emilio Argüeso, and framed in the Ministry of Justice and Interior, directed by Salomé Pradas. And, ultimately, in the president of the Generalitat Valenciana, Carlos Mazón.
The official agenda of the head of the Valencian Agency for Security and Emergency Response, available on the GVA Oberta transparency portal, details four meetings throughout Tuesday morning apparently unrelated to the looming disaster.
The worst disaster since the Tous swamp
The provisional balance of victims, at least 62 officially confirmed deaths, places the historic DANA disaster far above the personal and material damage caused by the Tous swamp in 1982, with around thirty deaths.
Although there is still no official count of the dead and missing – emergency services cannot physically access many flooded areas – the first voices critical of the management of the Generalitat have already been heard.
Joan Baldoví, spokesperson for Compromís, has said that “today is not the day to ask for responsibilities, as there are some.” However, Baldoví has highlighted the role of public services “in catastrophe situations and has warned: “The days of responsibilities will come.”
For its part, Intersindical Valenciana has openly criticized the “inefficiency” of Carlos Mazón in the management of DANA which, in the union’s opinion, has put “the lives of hundreds of thousands of workers at risk.”
A “third world management”
Representatives of civil society have also expressed themselves. Andrés Boix, professor of Law at the University of Valencia, has been one of the most critical voices regarding the management of the disaster. Boix, in statements to this newspaper, considers that this Tuesday’s emergency has been “treated exactly the same as the 1957 flood was treated by the Francoist authorities, who did not notify the population.”
“It is absolutely incredible and regrettable that the Generalitat’s alert arrives at 8 p.m. when the floods have already occurred, catching many people returning from work, at work or at home, but without being able to protect themselves,” he states.
Boix criticizes a “third world management” aggravated by infrastructure and urban planning that “since the Tous swamp of 1982 it seems that they have not improved at all.” “Many responsibilities must be held because public officials must be required to have a minimum of competence and professionalism,” he adds.
The UV professor denounces that the political leaders of Emergency management “were missing and should have been coordinating and guaranteeing that there was information for the citizens.” In addition, it also alludes to the judicial aspect of the disaster, with the controversial antecedent of the Tous swamp and compensation.
#alert #Generalitat #Valenciana #cell #phones #arrived #hundreds #people #trapped
