Three days after the tragic floods which devastated the Valencia region, Spain continues to count its dead this Friday, but also the weather. A supposedly lost time, that which elapsed, Tuesday October 29, between the weather alert and the message from the authorities to residents. At least twelve hours during which the Valencians initially continued to travel the roads only to end up, for some, finding themselves trapped by the waters. A complete turn of the dial which could have proved fatal.
On the one hand, there is this “red alert”, issued around 7:30 a.m., Tuesday morning, by Aemet, the National Meteorological Agency, and inviting the population to exercise the greatest “caution” in the face of “extreme danger”. On the other hand, this SMS from civil protection instructing residents to avoid “any type of travel in the Valencia region”, but which was only received after 8 p.m., or even 9 p.m. in certain localities, according to the daily El País.
Met on site after the disaster, several witnesses confided their distress. “We wonder why the alerts came so late,” says Sergio, a thirty-year-old from Valencia. When we received them on the telephones, around 8:10 p.m., the water had already risen. »
VideoAerial view of Valencia after passing Dana
Between the two warnings, in fact, a flood had fallen on the provinces of central-eastern Spain. From before 5 p.m., the images published on social networks by the Emergency Coordination Center of the Valencian Autonomous Community left no doubt about the violence of the disaster in progress, torrents of mud carrying cars and penetrating homes .
It was only an hour before, however, when emergency calls were pouring in, that the body responsible for coordinating the action of the emergency services, the Integrated Operational Coordination Center, was activated in Valencia ( Cecopi). While the depression continued over the region on Friday, a painful question continued to arise: would better responsiveness from the authorities have made it possible to reduce the human toll, estimated at at least 205 dead?
“Some must be judged”
Many criticisms target Carlos Mazón, the regional president, who affirmed in a video broadcast on social networks, at 1 p.m. Tuesday, but since deleted, that the intensity of the phenomenon would decrease that day, around 6 p.m. Quite the opposite happened. His political party, the People's Party (PP), preferred to blame alleged failings by Aemet. The national agency recalls having warned of the potentially devastating effects of the storm as early as October 20.
In a message published on Some must be judged. But in the world of meteorology and communication, we also need to be self-critical, take responsibility and see how we can improve. »
Among the avenues mentioned in the press, red alerts announced up to three days in advance or the possibility for the Aemet agency to broadcast its own recommendations on travel.
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