The predecessor of the popular Salomé Pradas in the Ministry of Justice and Interior, Elisa Núñez, from Vox, praised during the DANA in September 2023 the Es-Alert system of mass notification to the population’s mobile phones in the event of catastrophe risks. The State Meteorological Agency (Aemet) warned of a DANA that would hit the Valencian territory on Saturday, September 2, 2023. Núñez, who had been in office for just over a month, praised the Es-Alert system, integrated into the National Alert Network, on the eve of DANA – Friday, September 1, 2023 – which allows warnings to be sent automatically using a strident sound to mobile phones to the population who are in an area affected by emergencies or disasters.
This is the alert sent late at 8:12 p.m. last Tuesday, October 29, the day of the catastrophic DANA that destroyed a large part of the region of l’Horta Sud and Utiel-Requena, when hundreds of citizens were already trapped. The current head of Justice and Interior, Salomé Pradas, has systematically lied about the decision to send the alert. Pradas stated in statements in À Punt that he was not aware that this alert system existed until 8:00 p.m., when a technician informed him of it.
A falsehood immediately dismantled. At 6:00 p.m., two hours before the automatic message was sent to mobile phones, the president of the Júcar Hydrographic Confederation (CHJ), Miguel Polo, already put on the table the possibility of sending “massive alerts to the entire population.” ”, as elDiario.es has revealed. At 7:15 p.m., a technician again raised the possibility of sending the alert, according to an audio of the meeting of the Integrated Operational Coordination Center (Cecopi) published by Cadena Ser.
In DANA a year earlier, on the contrary, the then Vox councilor, Elisa Núñez, who had been in office for just over a month in the first Government of Carlos Mazón, valued the Es-Alert system, according to a note press release from his department on September 1, 2023 after a coordination meeting of the prevention and action device attended by the Government Delegation, the Emergency Subdirectorate, the provincial fire brigade consortiums and the municipal firefighters.
“Thanks to Es-Alert, it will not be the citizen who will have to call 112 to find out if there is an active emergency in their area, but it will be 112 itself that will notify the citizen of the imminent risk that exists in their municipality so that they can protect yourself or take measures,” said Elisa Núñez.
On August 24, 2023, a week before the DANA scheduled for Saturday, September 2, the Department of Justice and Interior already praised the Es-Alert system in a press release as a “perfect tool”, which recommended adding to the application on mobile phones of the 112 notices of the Generalitat Valenciana.
“It just so happens that the ES-Alert system has already been active since this year, which sends messages to mobile phones in particularly serious situations that involve actions by the recipients to the population through the National Alert Network.” , indicated the Department of Justice and Interior.
The role of José María Ángel
Why did a councilor who had been in office since July 11 react this way to DANA’s notice? The new Government of Carlos Mazón and his Vox partners left in office during that summer a key senior official of the Pacte del Botànic in matters of emergency and fire management: José María Ángel, regional secretary of Security and Emergencies and general director of the Valencian Agency for Security and Emergency Response. The Vox councilor was unable to find, before the most critical months of summer, a replacement for the regional secretariat that Ángel held, as this newspaper reported.
The alert system was incorporated into the Valencian Emergency system in 2023 by the Government of the Pacte del Botànic, chaired by Ximo Puig. The socialist José María Ángel, with experience in his resume as an executive advisor in the Ministry of the Interior and as a member of the Citizen Security and Civil Protection Commission of the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces, was the visible head of the Consell del Botànic in matters of Emergencies.
That summer of 2023, Ángel spent almost two months at the head of the Valencian Agency for Security and Emergency Response, despite the fact that the Vox councilor had been appointed on July 11. After the DANA of September 2023, which affected the entire Valencian territory, Elisa Núñez praised “the coordinated and effective action” of “all the Security and Emergency professionals of the Valencian Community.”
He did so, according to a press release from his department, on September 6, in a press release from his department. That same day, José María Ángel was dismissed and replaced by Javier Montero Hernández, who had been a senior official in the regional government chaired by Alberto Fabra and a provincial deputy of the PP.
Retired from the front line, career civil servant José María Ángel was ‘mobilized’ last Wednesday by the Government delegate, Pilar Bernabé, who incorporated him into her team due to his extensive experience and coordination capacity.
The Es-Alert test in Vega Baja
José María Ángel had been precisely the one who explained on Thursday, May 4, 2023, one of the first Es-Alert tests, carried out in the Vega Baja region, a flood risk area, as reported by elDiario.es.
The test by the Valencian Emergency Agency and the Ministry of the Interior was carried out in Orihuela and served to “test the reliability of the system that would be launched in emergency cases to convey behavioral guidelines to citizens,” explained José María Ángel.
The Es-Alert system is a sort of reverse 112. The L’Eliana Emergency Center receives about 10,000 calls daily, Ángel said. “What our technicians do,” explained José María Ángel, “is coordinate and make available to citizens any need they may have and what we intended with this system, what the European Union and the Government of Spain intended is that from the Emergency Center, when we have a need, we can give a notice to all Valencian citizens, or in this case sectorally or territorially (…) it would have been for the entire Vega Baja.”
The test, which included a “test” with several local police forces in the region, “has worked,” concluded the then director of the Valencian Emergency Agency. Last Tuesday, October 29, the alert was sent at 8:12 p.m.
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