The AEMET data refute Feijóo: the first alert was broadcast at 7:36 on Tuesday

The massive rainfall that fell in the province of Valencia last Tuesday was, perhaps, inevitable; but not the high number of victims, which this Thursday afternoon already stands at 158 ​​people. In the midst of controversy over whether the Valencian Generalitat notified the mobile phones of people who were in the area too late via SMS, the leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, praised this morning the management of his party colleague and president of the Government. Valencian, Carlos Mazón, despite the fact that he appeared on Tuesday at 1:00 p.m., saying that the rains would subside at 6:00 p.m.

To try to free Mazón from responsibility, Feijóo has not hesitated to attack public organizations such as the State Meteorological Agency (AEMET) and the Xúquer Hydrographic Confederation (Júcar): “I assure you that a regional president manages based on the information he receives, and the information that is received depends on organizations with exclusive jurisdiction of the central Government, see the AEMET or the Hydrographic Confederation. No one can make decisions based on information that can be exact, inaccurate, or improvable. Decisions are made based on the information provided to you at all times.”

This Thursday at noon, AEMET has released a statement in which it responds to the question that Feijóo has attempted: “The impact of a meteorological phenomenon depends on the preparation to face it and the evaluation and measures adopted by the autonomous communities,” states the release. And he continues: “AEMET information is always available, automatically, it is not necessary to request it. Those responsible for AEMET and the hydrographic confederations are always available to the Civil Protection authorities. The AEMET notices have been issued since Thursday, October 24, with informative notes and immediate updates since Tuesday, October 29.”

That is to say, the Generalitat Valenciana had this information at all times and from the first hour of Tuesday. At 7.31 hours, AEMET raises the level of the red orange warning (the maximum level) in the northern interior area of ​​the province of Valencia. At 7.36 hours. The red notice is extended to the southern coast of Valencia. From that moment on, AEMET will update the alert constantly.

Despite this and other warnings, a few minutes later, around 13.00 hours, Carlos Mazón appeared before the press and said that the storm would subside around 6:00 p.m. Furthermore, Mazón’s team later deleted the president’s tweet where he gave the same information: that the worst would have happened at 6:00 p.m.

Despite Feijóo’s attempt to exonerate his party’s government in the Valencian Community, AEMET’s information was not “inaccurate” or “could be improved.” At all times the information was punctual. In fact, AEMET’s first DANA forecast was made public on October 20, ten days ago. On Monday at 10:48 p.m., it issued a red and orange alert, the largest scale, and updated it throughout the fateful Tuesday.

For its part, at 8.53 The Xúquer Hydrographic Confederation – the other public body questioned this Thursday by Feijóo – also warned of the intensity of the rains: “We started on Tuesday very attentive to the evolution of rainfall in much of the Demarcation. In the last four hours more than 120 l/m² have accumulated in Carlet, 110 in Cortes de Pallás and more than 100 in Dos Aguas.”