The rapid reaction of the regional and local administrations to the second DANA that hit the peninsula in 15 days has shown that those who blamed the warning system for the destruction caused by DANA on October 29 did so in an interested manner. . Just two weeks later, and with the same information channels, the Andalusian, Catalan and Valencian authorities have implemented all the necessary measures to reduce the impact of the torrential rains.
Given the red notice from AEMET for this Wednesday and Thursday, the Generalitat Valenciana decreed the alert and sent on time – this time – several messages to mobile phones through the Es-Alert system, the Junta de Andalucía evicted thousands of residents of the banks of rivers at risk of overflowing and suspended classes in Granada and Malaga, while in Catalonia the Generalitat closed roads, including the AP-7 highway, to prevent the movement of the population.
“This new event is being managed much better,” he says. Francisco J. Tapiadorprofessor of Earth Physics at the University of Castilla-La Mancha (UCLM). “The warnings have been heeded, the alerts have been launched with sufficient advance notice by the authorities and the population is very aware that an alert of this type is a very serious thing.”
“The action of the administrations in time has been key for the population to be protected with this second DANA,” he assures. Joanna Ivarsmeteorologist at La Sexta. “The warning system works and has worked, as long as the administrations work together.”
About notices and alerts
Unlike what happened two weeks ago, the authorities have acted quickly on this occasion after receiving the red and orange notices from AEMET, whose thresholds and channels of dissemination are perfectly defined in the Meteoalert Plan (see PDF). Because institutions such as the meteorological agency are in charge of issuing warnings, but it is the administrations that manage the alerts and the measures to be adopted to protect the population.
The way of working at AEMET in relation to the issuance of notices is always the same. We always work like this regardless of the situation
Ruben del Campo
— AEMET spokesperson
“The way of working at AEMET in relation to the issuance of notices is always the same,” says its spokesperson, Ruben del Campoto elDiario.es. “There is continuous monitoring of the forecasts and when it is seen that there is a high probability that a certain threshold will be exceeded, these warnings are activated and immediately disseminated automatically to the national alert network.” In this sense, the agency has followed the same steps it followed 15 days ago. “We always work like this, regardless of the situation,” he says.
“I continue to observe confusion at different levels between warnings and alerts,” the experienced meteorologist complained online. Angel Rivera. “The warnings are given by AEMET based strictly on the predictions. With this information and others — which must be considered by the Civil Protection authorities — the corresponding community establishes the alert or pre-alert that it deems appropriate.”
“The warnings are made by AEMET and the hydrographic confederations, and then the alerts are generated by the civil protection organizations and the competent authorities, which depend on different administrations,” he emphasizes. Francisco Martin Leonmeteorologist and coordinator of RAM (Meteorology Amateur Magazine). “We officials have a written protocol of action, by regulations. The chain fails when these protocols reach the person who has to make the decision to send that message and does not take it, for whatever reasons.”
An interested noise
In recent weeks we have known a long chain of negligence and bad decisions by the authorities of the Valencian Community before and after the DANA on the 29th, starting with the disappearance of Carlos Mazón until 7:30 p.m. and continuing with the claims from her counselor that she did not know about the alarm system that was activated when people were already drowning. In the midst of this accumulation of irresponsibility, the accusing finger has been pointed at the AEMET technicians, the Júcar Hydrographic Confederation and the Ministry of Ecological Transition, despite evidence indicating that they did their job.
Every system can be improved, even if it works well. But waiting for a community president to take two or three hours to press the button is inconceivable.
Francisco Martin Leon
— Meteorologist and coordinator of RAM (Meteorology Amateur Magazine)
“Every system can be improved, even if it works well,” admits Martín León. “But waiting for a community president to take two or three hours to press the button is inconceivable.” “I think that political parties have to reflect on who they put in positions of trust and in the highest echelons of the administration,” adds Tapiador. “I think that the profile of someone without technical knowledge who has been in the party for 20 years and who is placed in different positions out of loyalty and commitment is something to rethink.”
There is room for improvement
Despite everything, experts admit that the coordination system is susceptible to improvement, and in fact the plans are reviewed periodically so that everything works better in the following episodes. “We are going towards a type of violent and more intense phenomena, of very rapid development, so we must have very clear response times and unified messages,” Ángel Rivera assures elDiario.es. The specialist defends the need to create a “State Environmental Risk Surveillance Center” to ensure that the alert system is “fail-safe” in the decision chain.
“In the DANA of Valencia, the predictors did what is established, what the rules say that, in my opinion, have to be reviewed,” says Rivera. In his opinion, the regulations are insufficient because they were changed at the time of the Tous dam failure and 40 years have already passed. “We must consider a profound review of everything, an integrative approach, because these are different times. The meteorology of the 80s was not so fast, perhaps due to the conditions themselves, but we are in an environment that requires other types of reaction and much more integration of information.
What is coming upon us is an order of magnitude greater than the catastrophes we have suffered until now
Jose Miguel Vinas
— Meteored Meteorologist
“Without management we run the risk of losing lives, especially in a geographic area like the Mediterranean with a historically extreme rainfall,” recalls Joanna Ivars. In his opinion, it is necessary to improve the organization between the administrations and above all to educate the population with a protocol to act in the face of this type of adverse events, because even with the alerts activated, in this latest episode “we have seen buses circulating full of water or people circulating in the middle of floods.”
“These high-impact DANAS are in charge of uncovering our miseries, one nonsense after another,” he says. Jose Miguel VinasMeteored meteorologist. “I think that people, in general, are beginning to accept that the risk of being directly affected is beginning to be real, but we still think that we will be able to continue more or less with our lives as before, when the waters calm down and the storm passes. , but what is coming upon us is an order of magnitude greater than the catastrophes we have suffered until now.”
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