Mazón did not warn, but Japan did: it alerted its residents in Spain by email one day before DANA

The Government of Japan and its citizens know well what torrential rains, typhoons and natural hazards mean in a country that has a meteorological culture since school and that issues clear prevention warnings to its population, especially refined since 2017. The latest great alert, a possible mega-earthquake in August, caused the government to advise its citizens to review their evacuation possibilities and urge those who did not have them to leave the area in which the cataclysm was predicted, which in the end did not happen.

Prevention and measures to avoid deaths and damage are internalized in the country and were exported to the destructive DANA of October 29. On Monday the 28th, one day before a flood claimed 219 lives and almost all of Horta Sud de València, the Japanese embassy in Madrid launched a massive email, “consular emails to Japanese residents in Spain to alert them of the situation” of the DANA, as the embassy has confirmed to elDiario.es and Newtral advanced to deny some hoaxes that ran through networks about this Japanese alert. He also sent it to tourists who had registered on the Japanese foreign ministry website as visitors. There are 6,068 Japanese citizens living in Spain, according to the latest INE registry, living mainly in Madrid, Barcelona, ​​Malaga and Valencia.

In the mail, the Japanese Embassy in Madrid It simply collected the warnings that it had posted on its Civil Protection website (dependent on the Ministry of the Interior) and which were based on the warnings and predictions of the State Meteorological Agency (AEMET), the same whose severity was minimized by the president of the Generalitat Valenciana, the one competent in managing emergencies, since that in Spain it is the autonomies that are in control.

In addition to summarizing to its citizens in a clear way and by days and areas what phenomena they would face – “the 29th will be the day of greatest climatic deterioration, with forecasts of torrential rains and storms in the following areas: Area of ​​the Strait of Gibraltar, East of Andalusia, Region of Murcia, East of Castilla-La Mancha, Valencian Community”, gave some clear advice.

First, he warned the Japanese in Spain that, as the AEMET always warns, “this type of climate change is difficult to predict accurately and recommends staying up to date with the most recent information.” Then he issued a series of specific warnings. For example, “prepare for emergency situations,” “ensure your safety by avoiding unnecessary risks,” or “carefully check weather and traffic conditions before traveling and consider whether it is safe to travel.”

Once the devastating flood occurred due to the torrential rains and the overflowing of the ravines in the province of Valencia, the Embassy of Japan sent a second mass email on the 30th reminding us of the red alerts – and explaining with numerical expression what level it meant, the maximum in this case – and with recommendations to its citizens, among which were informing the embassy and their families if they were in an emergency situation.

Japan has a weather agency to whose risk scale there are associated direct orders to the population. The lowest, yellow, urges you to be clear about whether you can evacuate. The next one is red, and people with little mobility must evacuate – in the case of Valencia, the group where there has been the most mortality is those over 70 years of age. The purple level orders the evacuation of the entire population from risk places. Black, the highest stage, warns that there is “risk to life” and orders to get to safety “immediately.”