The Valencia City Council has established the non-permanent commission for the study and recovery of the areas affected by DANA in the city of València, a commission that in practice will serve to try to clarify all the questions that arise about the municipal management of that fateful incident. October 29 in which 222 people died, 17 of them found in La Torre, Castellar-Oliveral and Forn d’Alcedo, districts of the capital.
The commission will consist of five lines of action approved in the last plenary session, which are the recovery of the affected districts, mobility and security, economic reactivation, environmental regeneration and finally public financing. Each municipal political group with representation may call 10 people to appear, which will be open to all citizens through the City Council website.
The initial calendar of the commission has also been approved, which will have its next session on December 18 where the work plan will be approved, while the first appearances will be held from January 7.
The absence of forceful prevention measures by the City Council throughout the day and the subsequent statements by Mayor María José Catalá suggest that, as happened with the majority of mayors, the Generalitat Emergencies did not alert her to the risk of flooding.
In this way, throughout the day on October 29, classes were not suspended in the city’s schools, nor were the public address systems used to alert the residents of the affected districts, something that was done a week later in the second DANA. Nor were all municipal resources mobilized, especially firefighters, as reported by the members of the force themselves.
Catalá has repeatedly complained that the Júcar Hydrographic Confederation (CHJ) did not warn him of the danger, when it is the Generalitat’s Emergencies that must do so according to the Civil Protection law and the flood protocols, from which it is clear that, as happened with the majority of affected mayors, the administration chaired by Carlos Mazón did not warn him either.
That day, with a red notice from the State Meteorological Agency (AEMET) from 7:36 a.m., extended to the entire province of Valencia at 9:41 a.m., the Valencia City Council, which was holding the October plenary session, convened the Coordination Center Municipal Operations (Cecopal) around 11:00 in the morning, that is, six hours before the meeting of the Integrated Operational Coordination Center (Cecopi) of the Generalitat Valenciana, in charge of managing the emergency and transferring the appropriate measures to the municipalities, without prejudice to their ability to adopt whatever they consider.
The City Council ordered the closure of fenced parks as well as cemeteries and suspended the activities of the Municipal Sports Foundation until 3:00 p.m. “due to the weather alert.” In the case of schools, it was recommended not to carry out outdoor activities. The shelter on Santa Cruz de Tenerife street was also opened for vulnerable people. At that time, the Emergency Coordination Center had activated a hydrological alert at the request of the Júcar Hydrographic Confederation (CHJ) due to the risk of collapse in the Poyo ravine. The warning was issued at 12:20 p.m. Activity at the University of Valencia was also suspended.
Cecopal remains active at all times and even in at least two of its meetings (12:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m.) both the socialist spokesperson, Borja Sanjuan, and the Compromís spokesperson, Papi Robles, are present. In the afternoon, at 4:10 p.m., a concert at the Palau de la Música and also the family school at the youth center are suspended for prevention, to avoid travel. A decision that contrasts with the maintenance of normal activity in schools (except for the recommendation not to go out to the playground).
There is little more information about that day until 8:06 p.m., when Mayor Catalá announces that she is suspending her agenda scheduled for Wednesday, October 30. Six minutes later, the alert would arrive from the Cecopi of the Generalitat on citizens’ mobile phones to urge them not to leave home and avoid traveling at a time when l’Horta Sud was already practically flooded, as was the district of The Tower. The water reached Castellar-Oliveral and Forn d’Alcedo minutes later. According to neighborhood sources, between 8:30 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. the Local Police cut off the bridge that connects the Covered Cross with La Torre to traffic.
However, as reported by the Compromís councilor and affected resident of La Torre, Lucía Beamud, the City Council did not communicate any notice to the citizens of the districts through the public address system that is enabled in the streets to announce the sides. A public address system that was used a week later in the second DANA, or last June by the PP to thank them for their electoral victory in the European elections.
At the Cecopal meeting at 8:00 p.m., the City Council decided to suspend classes the next day, as well as outdoor sports activities. Parks and gardens and cemeteries were also kept closed and it was recommended to avoid unnecessary trips and follow the instructions of Civil Protection. After midnight it was announced that the Petxina Complex was being enabled as a reception center for evacuees and it was reported that firefighters and the EMU were working in La Torre and Forn d’Alcedo.
It is also striking that a preventive eviction of the Pinedo district was decided after 1:00 a.m. after a first notice so that no one remained on the ground floors and first floors. After spending the early morning in the Alquería del Basket and the Petxina complex, on the morning of the 30th they returned to their homes.
Added to all this is the criticism of the City Hall fire department, which recently reported that on the night of October 29, off-duty personnel were not activated to reinforce the service at the critical moment, nor were the Diving Specialist Group or to the Canine Unit, despite the fact that both have intervened in international catastrophes.
According to the Professional Union of Local Police and Firefighters (SPPLB), the Canine Rescue Unit – with experience in the earthquake in Turkey and the floods in Libya – “did not act until three days later (November 2), despite being available with their dogs since the morning of the 30th and having at least one confirmed missing person in La Torre on the 31st (later a second missing person would be confirmed).”
“The truth is that during the first days the human and technical resources available were not mobilized, leaving dozens of firefighters at home who were prepared to act and were disconcerted by the lack of initiative from the Headquarters to do so. We were astonished to see firefighters from Granada, Malaga, Madrid and other towns throughout Spain working incessantly in affected areas while the Valencia Fire Department did not start up or make all of its resources available to citizens,” they lamented.
Neighborhood sources from La Torre and Castellar-Oliveral have assured this editorial staff that on the 30th very few members of the Local Police and City Hall firefighters were seen.
The opposition will summon Mazón and Catalá
Compromís has announced that among the people it will propose to appear in the investigation commission on the management of the DANA catastrophe created in Valencia will be the mayor of the PP. Its spokesperson Papi Robles explained that “from Compromís we want this commission to serve to publicize everything that happened during the emergency and the hours and days that followed.” For this reason, he believes that the fact that the municipal government only wants to talk about future measures is because they want to “shut down” and tiptoe around without giving explanations.
Papi Robles has also announced that he will request the appearance of the president of the Generalitat Carlos Mazón as the main person responsible for emergency management and, therefore, in case the alert did not arrive in time, “the Valencian people are still waiting for it to be “They clarify responsibilities for this negligent and disastrous management of the catastrophe that has cost 222 lives, 17 in the city of Valencia.”
The spokesperson for the Municipal Socialist Group, Borja Sanjuan, explained that his party proposed the creation of the Investigation Commission to analyze what went wrong on October 29 to make València one of the municipalities with the most fatalities as a result of DANA management. “We want it to develop without vetoes or obstacles,” he stated.
“This commission has to apply all the transparency that Valencians have been missing in recent months regarding the management of this catastrophe and with this desire we have set ourselves the next day the 10th to be able to make the proposal for a work plan and the proposal for appearing parties”, he reported. Along these lines, he has stated that the will of the socialists is that “the different people responsible for the negligent management come to give explanations,” he stressed.
The Government spokesperson, Juan Carlos Caballero, has indicated that they have launched “this commission for the reconstruction of the areas affected by the districts” and that they are “focused on responding to the needs of the neighbors because they ask us to Let’s respond.”
“The families have lost a lot and what they cannot lose is time and what they want is for their political representatives from both the government and the opposition to together solve their problems. With that spirit we have begun to work together with the mayor and political representatives. We are going to allocate all human and material resources to respond to their needs and return them to normal. To recover our districts and also those people who are in a vulnerable situation,” Caballero explained.
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