After sadness comes anger. Two days after violent bad weather accompanied by flash floods that left at least 95 dead in southeastern Spain, the lack of anticipation and reaction of local authorities to the torrential rains that were already falling on Tuesday in October is being criticized. 29 at the end of the day in the Valencian Community.
On social networks, many users point out the moment in which the alert was given by the civil protection of the Generalitat Valenciana, an institution of the autonomous government of the Valencian Community.
“The management of the events in Valencia was negligent and irresponsible. People died due to the incompetence of those responsible,” wrote lawyer Isabel Díaz in X.
On the same social network, PSOE MEP and former Valencia councilor Sandra Gómez, for her part, criticized the lack of information disseminated when the meteorological phenomenon was most intense.
She points out that her husband was stranded on the road submerged by water and only owed his salvation to “a mixture of luck and reflexes.” In her reflection, she is joined by dozens of Internet users who accuse the regional authorities of having waited too long before raising the alarm.
Hours of inaction
While the worst of the bad weather occurred between 4:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. on Tuesday, October 29, during which thousands of square meters of water fell on Valence and its surroundings, the Es-Alert warning system, identical to the FR – The French alert was only used at 8:12 p.m.
Evidently, an alert message accompanied by a shrill ringtone reached the phones of hundreds of thousands of people while entire towns and neighborhoods were already submerged by the rapid rise of water. This notification advised, among other things, to limit travel in the area.
However, the Spanish State Meteorological Agency (AEMET) had put the Valencia region on red alert due to bad weather and raised the alarm in its 7 a.m. bulletin. In previous days, this same meteorological institute had already warned of the arrival of a cold drop to the southeast of the territory.
According to the Spanish newspaper El Correo, the Júcar Hydrographic Confederation, the body in charge of regulating actions in the hydrological networks of the region, for its part alerted about the situation at midday.
However, according to the Catalan newspaper La Vanguardia, it was already five in the afternoon when the Emergency Coordination Center of the Generalitat Valenciana (CECOPI) met, before an alert was launched more than three hours later.
“We follow the protocols”
Faced with criticism, the central power of Madrid and the local power of the Valencian Community pass the buck. This Thursday, the Ministry of the Interior made it clear that the responsibility for these alerts lies with the autonomous communities, such as Valencia.
According to Madrid, local entities must receive notices related to possible risks, analyze their impact and determine the level of emergency to decree to protect the population.
After a deafening silence of several hours on the issue, Carlos Mazón, president of the Valencian Community, defended this Thursday his management of the crisis and the alerts disseminated to the population.
“We follow the protocols” standardized and coordinated by the General Directorate of Civil Protection of the Spanish Government, he responded, adding that he and his collaborators “were not meteorologists.”
Local politicians point fingers
Despite these explanations, the situation is becoming increasingly unsustainable for Mazón, a conservative of the Popular Party (PP) who took over as head of the region in 2023.
In recent hours, many political adversaries have reminded him that one of his first decisions when he came to power was to suppress the Valencia Emergency Unit (UVE) by decree, considering it ineffective.
The latter, created by the previous socialist government, was a body to coordinate firefighting actions, intended to respond to climate catastrophes, such as the one currently affecting the Valencian Community.
This Thursday, searches continue in the southeast of Spain to find dozens of people who are still missing. Supported by drones and dogs specialized in searches of this type, 2,500 soldiers and members of civil protection are mobilized.
Source: BFM TV
