this week's disaster questions our behavior and our prevention systems

It is impossible not to react to the terrible and still provisional results of these violent bad weather: more than 150 dead and dozens missing. Why such a heavy human toll when heavy rains were forecast several hours before the disaster? The question haunts Spain and raises several lines of thought.

The assessment on Friday, November 1 of this week's historic floods in the south-east of Spain is still provisional. It reached 158 deaths and searches continue to find dozens of missing people while the Spanish Meteorological Agency (Aemet) launches new alerts.

There are many questions, particularly regarding alert systems. If the predictions were good with a red alert from the weather services on Tuesday morning, the prevention was clearly ineffective, with people spending a normal afternoon, without being aware of the risks of a cold drop phenomenon, classic in the region at this time of year, and emergency messages sent to phones late.

Why not have you given the instruction to stay at home earlier? The question is immediate and almost unanimous among residents of the disaster areas in the suburbs of Valencia, Spain's third largest city. As a result, among the victims, many motorists were trapped by the rising waters because they had gone shopping or were returning from work, despite the warnings. Moreover, the regional government had not suspended school or professional activities. The regions are very autonomous in Spain. And the fluidity of cooperation with the central government will undoubtedly be questioned once the mourning has passed.

But prevention is not the only avenue to explore. For an alert to work, it must be taken seriously and followed by appropriate behavior. This requires pedagogical and educational work. A culture of risk and the new reality of climatic phenomena, which is failing, both on the part of the authorities and the population. Many victims thought they could save their car despite the flood. Beyond the debate on the responsibility for climate change in this week's drama, there is the urgent need to take into account the disruption in the way in which it can accentuate the virulence of known phenomena, and in which it requires us to review our ways of functioning, of organizing ourselves and of thinking about our constructions and our developments.