He was able to alert earlier and had all the information at his disposal. This is the thesis with which the Government has responded to the orders launched last Friday by the president of the Generalitat, Carlos Mazón, regarding the management of the emergency of the devastating DANA of October 29. Two ministries, Interior and Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge, as well as the State Meteorological Agency (Aemet), have attacked the version of the ‘popular’ leader, denying that there was an “information blackout” and pointing out that two hours before he arrived at the Cecopi have already warned of the risk of the Forata dam breaking.
Three simultaneous missiles towards Mazón twenty-four hours after he appeared at his own request in the Valencian Cortes to account for the actions of his Government regarding the tragedy in which 217 people have died and 16 are still missing. The regional leader apologized, admitted errors and developed an extensive chronology of the events with which he attempted to share responsibility with the central Executive.
Some statements that have caused the Government of Pedro Sánchez to come out in a rush this Saturday to try to deny different aspects on which the Alicante leader elaborated. The first was the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, who denied that there had been a «information blackout» by the Júcar Hydrographic Confederation (CHJ) and the Aemet during the afternoon of October 29, as Mazón maintains.
“There were all the necessary and precise warnings and on a permanent basis,” Marlaska argued, while pointing out that “any question that is said in this regard lacks the necessary veracity and what happened.” Regarding this, he has insisted that “all communications” that were developed from Aemet and CHJ are known and carried out in a “permanent and precise” manner, without “any lapse in that time.”
For its part, the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge led by the third vice president Teresa Ribera, singled out by the PP for her role in the management of DANA, has pointed out that between 5:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. the hydrological alerts due to overflow of the Poyo rambla, the Magro and Júcar rivers and also the Forata dam. The same government sources assert that from the first moment Cecopi was established, at five in the afternoon, it was reported that the situation of this latter infrastructure “was very serious.” Specifically, they state that The critical situation arose before 5:30 p.m. -more than two hours before the Es-Alert system was activated and President Mazón arrived- and that the CHJ notified the Emergency Department at 6:55 p.m. that the dam was releasing 633 m3/s.
At this point, they emphasize that the Minister of Justice, Salomé Pradas, was present at the meeting when the scenario of the dam breaking was contemplated, which is why they question Mazón when he assures that he went to the l’Eliana emergency center at to be warned that the situation at the Forata dam “was getting worse.”
The Generalitat asks for “rigor”
By allusions, the Generalitat does not deny that the situation at the Forata dam was discussed around 5:30 p.m. but describes it as “absolutely false» these statements and demands «rigor» in the face of «the non-existent evidentiary support» of them. Thus, Presidency sources explain that the CHJ communicated to the Emergency Coordination Center, within the Cecopi meeting, the “certain and real” intention to declare Scenario 3 of the Forata Dam Emergency Plan around 7:30 p.m. hours and that it was at 8:00 p.m. when he confirmed the risk of imminent rupture. After that moment was when At 8:11 p.m., the mobile alert was sent to the population..
The Generalitat regrets that although the situation met the conditions to establish the Scenario 3the CHJ decided not to declare it. An option whose technicians and leaders did discuss and verbalize during the meeting but it was not until the call from the Secretary of State for the Environment, Hugo Morán, when they were alerted to the true and certain seriousness of the dam.
In fact, according to the autonomous government, at 5:35 p.m. Emergencies sent the hydrological alert on the Magro and Júcar rivers from their confluence in Algemesí and notified all riverside municipalities up to the mouth in Cullera so that they could activate all precautionary measures. corresponding.
They defend in this regard that it was around 7:00 p.m. when the CHJ sent an email to 112 warning that the dam was pouring 633,678 m3/s into the Magro River. Situation that activates the Generalitat technicians to directly question those responsible for the Confederation to specify the severity of the Forata reservoir. The same professionals, as the situation became more complicated and they did not obtain “clear answers”, asked them what the probability of breakage was and how much time did they haveto which the first responded first three hours and then two.
Aemet criticizes Cecopi
The third link in the Government that has tried to contradict some of the information from the Valencian president has been the State Meteorological Agency itself. Aemet has criticized that Cecopi did not make any decision between 5:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. on the fateful October 29 and that it suspended the meeting an hour later until 7:00 p.m., despite all the warnings and alarms that had been given up to that moment, so many that They believe that there were reasons before six o’clock to send the massive alert.
The meteorologists present at the first meeting of the competent management body of the tragedy narrate that it was called by the Ministry of the Interior at three in the afternoon and that it was established at five. Half an hour later, the probability of a breakup of Forata had already been put on the table and it was proposed to evict the population from the area.
Regarding the Es-Alert system, which Mazón attributes to the worsening of the dam, Aemet details that this measure was finally debated around 7:10 p.m. and that, although it is true that there was concern regarding the reservoir, it is not accurate that the notice was will send only due to its situation.
The Generalitat describes as “extemporaneous” that Aemet “talks about what it has no jurisdiction” because the monitoring of flows in rivers, reservoirs, ravines, regulation systems and flood zones “is a function of the CHJ.” Furthermore, it should be noted that “the statements made contradict the official chronology of the events that the Confederation has recognized.”
Threshold and not maximum
On the other hand, given Mazón’s statements stating that the alert situation ended around 6:00 p.m. based on the information conveyed by Aemet, through a public appearance by the Government delegate and in an interview on regional television, in those that pointed to that time as the end of the episode, the meteorological service defends that at no time did there stop being a red notice in the north of the province of Valencia.
The warning, which initially ended at 6:00 p.m., was revised and extended until 8:00 p.m., because, they point out, even though it might stop raining, the water continued to flow and subsequent flooding occurred. All of this, the meteorological agency insists, which did not refer to a maximum rainfall, since its warnings always reflect thresholds, which can be reached or exceeded.
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