An accumulation of errors caused by the inability, passivity or disinterest of those responsible for ensuring citizen security has magnified the DANA tragedy in Valencia. It is still early to clarify responsibilities, but it is becoming more and more evident that the mechanisms to alert the population failed and that many of the victims perhaps could have been avoided.
This is the reconstruction of how the catastrophe unfolded during the fateful day of October 29:
7.36 hours. The State Meteorological Agency activates the first red alert for torrential rains in the Valencian Community, which would later be expanded to different specific areas of the province of Valencia.
10:26 a.m. Floods are reported in some parts of the province of Valencia. For example, in the town of Llombai, as reported on Twitter by the account of the Team of Digital Volunteers in Emergencies of the Valencian Community.
10:31 a.m. Meeting of the Government Delegation with representatives of the Júcar Hydrographic Confederation, the Aemet and police forces to analyze the situation of the DANA in the Valencian Community.
11.06 hours. The Júcar Hydrographic Confederation (CHJ) detects that the flow in the Poyo Rambla, whose overflow has caused the majority of fatalities, was 264 m³/s and sends a first warning by e-mail to the Emergency Coordination Center of the Generalitat Valenciana.
12:20 p.m. The Emergency Coordination Center of the Generalitat issued a hydrological alert for the municipalities in the Poyo ravine area. “The trend is upward and rainfall continues in the headwaters. It is important that municipalities adopt preventive measures to prevent people from accessing the banks,” he indicated.
12:30 p.m. First contacts between the Valencian Minister of the Interior, Salomé Pradas, and the Government delegate, Pilar Bernabé, to analyze the situation.
1:00 p.m. The Valencian president, Carlos Mazón, appears before the media and announces that the worst of the storm has already passed: “According to the forecast, the storm is moving towards the Serranía de Cuenca at the moment, so it is expected that around 18 hours the intensity decreases throughout the rest of the Valencian Community.
1:23 p.m. The DGT reports that the A-3 highway is closed near Requena due to flooding.
1:42 p.m. The CHJ warns that the flow of the Poyo Rambla drops to 120 m³/s with a downward trend, although the Generalitat maintains the hydrological alert activated.
2:00 p.m. The Valencia Provincial Council agrees to close all work centers to avoid risks for its workers.
2:20 p.m. Through Twitter, Councilor Pradas asks for “great caution to the residents of the municipalities through which the Magro River and the Poyo ravine flow.”
2:30 p.m. The Government delegate in the Valencian Community, Pilar Bernabé, sends a message of calm, ensuring that “all personnel are prepared, on alert and working in a coordinated manner.” Remember that the red alert is “in principle” until 6:00 p.m., although it does not rule out that it could be extended because “the forecast is that there will be rain throughout the day.” He also assures that he is in contact with the mayors of the municipalities in the area. However, the mayor of Algemesí, José Javier Sanchís, has reported that that day he was waiting for a call from the Government Delegation that never came.
2:35 p.m. The Júcar Hydrographic Confederation (CHJ) reports that the flow of the Poyo Rambla has decreased considerably, to 55.86 m³/s and reported a decrease again at 3:50 p.m. (28.70 m³/s).
3:21 p.m. The Valencian president, Carlos Mazón, assures that at that time requested the intervention of the Military Emergency Unit (UME) in the town of Utiel, which was already suffering significant damage from torrential rains. Minister Pradas assures that she had already requested the intervention of the UME at 2:00 p.m.
4:55 p.m. The CHJ reports that in the next hour flows greater than 1,000 m³/s are expected in the Magro River.
5:00 p.m. Meeting of the Integrated Operational Coordination Center (CECOPI). Mazón is absent at the beginning of that meeting and did not join until after two hours. According to the Generalitat, the CHJ did not warn at that meeting about the increase in flow in the Rambla del Poyo, even though the president of the CHJ, Miguel Polo Cebellán, was present.
5:03 p.m. The UME reports the mobilization of its first troops from the Jaime I base in Valencia to help in the Utiel region.
5:30 p.m. The CHJ detects a “sharp” increase in the flow of the Rambla del Poyo, which already reaches the same level of flow that motivated the alert issued by the Generalitat Valenciana Emergencies at noon. However, does not contact Emergencies again until 6:43 p.m., according to the Valencian government. “No further notice or communication is received from the CHJ after 4:13 p.m., neither via email, nor by telephone, nor in person at CECOPI,” he maintains.
6:04 p.m. The CHJ does inform CECOPI that “scenario 2 of the emergency plan at the Forata dam” has been declared due to the risk of the dam breaking. That reservoir and the flow of the Magro River focused a good part of the CECOPI meeting instead of focusing on the Poyo rambla.
6:43 p.m. Emergencies of the Generalitat receives the last e-mail of the CHJ, warning of the great flood in the Rambla del Poyo, with a flow of 1,686 m³/s with an upward trend and a very rapid flood. “That e-mail It arrives when the CECOPI meeting is taking place. In that meeting, the representatives of the CHJ did not make any warning of the risk that existed in the Rambla del Poyo,” criticizes the Mazón government.
6:55 p.m. The Poyo rambla reaches 2,282 m³/s, four times the flow of the Ebro. The force of the water destroys the CHJ measurement systems, according to the agency dependent on the Ministry of Ecological Transition of Teresa Ribera
7:00 p.m. Around this time, Mazón joins the meeting of the Integrated Operational Coordination Center (CECOPI), in l’Eliana, after receiving a call from his Minister of the Interior, Salomé Pradas, warning him of the risk that existed in the Forata dam. .
7:13 p.m. The Poyo ravine takes in a pedestrian walkway in Picanya.
7:34 p.m. Emergencies of the Generalitat raises the Special Flood Plan to level 2 throughout the province of Valencia.
7:43 p.m. Pedro Sánchez assures on Twitter that he is following the events “closely” and is already talking about “disappeared” as a result of the storm: “I follow closely and with concern the information about the missing people and the damage caused by DANA in the last few hours “.
8:00 p.m. According to Minister Pradas, at that time she received a call from Hugo Morán, Secretary of State for Ecological Transition, dependent on the Ministry. Morán told him that he was in Colombia, learning about the situation and that he could not assure him that the Forata dam was not going to break. The counselor emphasizes That call motivated the decision to send the alert to mobile phones 12 minutes later.
8:12 p.m. The CECOPI, with representatives of the Generalitat, the Government Delegation and the Júcar Hydrographic Confederation, in addition to the State security forces, finally decided to send the alert to the population’s mobile phones, but it was too late. because there were hundreds of people trapped by the flood and numerous victims had already been recorded.
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