The data from the Hydrographic Confederation refute Mazón: the Generalitat knew about the risk of floods since 5:30 p.m.

As Feijóo did last week, questioning AEMET’s information, this Monday it was the Valencian president, Carlos Mazón, who wanted to transfer responsibility to the Júcar Hydrographic Confederation (CHJ) for the late sending of the alert to mobile phones. Mazón has said in statements to COPE that the Hydrographic Confederation, “dependent on the ministry of Teresa Ribera”, suppressed the warnings due to flooding in the river basins. The CHJ responded in a statement that the power to issue alerts is autonomous, that is, Mazón.

“The competent authorities in matters of civil protection are responsible for evaluating the possible effects of this physical risk in the population and in the environment, and, therefore, for issuing the corresponding notices and adopting the protection measures that they consider most appropriate. in each case,” recalls the CHJ.

In his statements today, Mazón insists on throwing the ball out: “When the hydrological alert is activated first thing in the morning, it is then deactivated three times. And it is not until 6:45 p.m. (…) that they say that everything has changed.” However, the CHJ denies it.

Hydrological alerts – warnings of river flooding – are issued by the regional officials responsible for Civil Protection and Emergencies, not by the hydrographic confederations. These are limited to measuring and providing data on accumulated rainfall and channel levels. In the case of the Generalitat Valenciana, before the late massive sending to mobile phones at 8:12 p.m. on Tuesday, October 29, its Emergency services had disseminated up to three hydrological alerts on social networks; but none of them to the citizens’ motives.

11:45 first hydrological alert due to the flow of the Magro River

At 11:45, the Emergency Coordination Center – the autonomous body responsible for communicating hydrological alerts – issues a “special notice” with information from the CHJ to the municipalities of the Magro River basin. The river carries 350 cubic meters of water per second. Meanwhile, further north, in the Poyo ravine, the situation begins to get complicated.

“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.” They are statements that President Carlos Mazón tweeted at 1:14 p.m.then deleted it.

5:00 p.m., sudden increase in flow in the Poyo, without regional alert

Since 5:00 p.m. the CHJ has recorded a “sharp increase” in the flow of the Poyo ravine. At 5:30 p.m. it reaches a level similar to that which caused the regional emergencies to issue the hydrological alert at 12:20 p.m., that is, about 264 cubic meters per second. “However, this time the regional authorities did not issue a new alert,” states the CHJ in its press release.

That is, at 5:30 p.m. the Emergency services – under the responsibility of Carlos Mazón – knew of the sudden increase in flow in the Poyo rambla; but they did not issue a hydrological alert, as they had done at 12:20.

5:30 p.m., increase in flow in the Magro and Júcar rivers, third regional alert

In parallel, at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Emergencies of the Valencian Community issued a third hydrological alert (not to mobile phones), but not for the Poyo ravine – despite the dramatic increase in flow. The new alert was issued due to the situation in a basin that runs, to the south, parallel to the Poyo Rambla. It is the basin of the Júcar and Magro rivers. 112 had already issued a first alert about the situation in this basin at 11:45 a.m.

In the 5:30 p.m. alert it is said that the flow can reach a thousand cubic meters per second “downstream of the Forata reservoir.” In that same alert it is recalled that “since the early hours of the afternoon” the “red level” alert has been reactivated on the southern coast of Valencia.

Back at the Poyo ravine, the CHJ relates how at 6:55 p.m. the force of the water drags the sensors and measurement systems. That boulevard already carries 2,282 cubic meters per second. “The Rambla del Poyo had a rise of 2,000 cubic meters per second, at six in the afternoon, which is four times the normal flow of the Ebro,” Victòria Roselló, head of meteorology at the public channel À Punt, explained on television on November 1.

20.12, massive mobile alert

Mazón has tried today to link the late sending of the alert to mobile phones by the Generalitat Valenciana with the situation at the Forata dam. He states that the CHJ’s warning about the risk at the Forata dam is sent almost at seven in the afternoon (although it is not the responsibility of the CHJ to send alerts and the regional Emergency Service itself had sent one at 5:30 p.m.).

But the devastation of the floods was not caused so much by the Forata dam (which did not break), but rather by the overflowing of the Poyo ravine, about whose critical situation the Mazón Government had information since 5:30 p.m.

Throughout Tuesday, not everyone had the opportunity to be informed through the media and social networks. The bulk of the affected citizens, who were also in many cases in areas where it was not raining or raining lightly, had no sense of risk until their cell phones beeped and vibrated at 8:12 p.m. with, finally, the massive telephone alert from the Generalitat. Valencian. It was too late, there were already thousands of people trapped in the mud.