Numerous security flaws emerge after DANA’s passage in Spain

Madrid. As the days go by, the numerous security failures that were recorded in the hours before the torrential rains of last October 29 in the southeast of Spain begin to emerge, especially in the Valencian Community, with a provisional toll of 219 deaths and tens of thousands of victims. The main people accused of negligence or lack of expertise in their professional actions are those responsible for the Valencian autonomous government, of the right-wing Popular Party (PP), with its president at the head, Carlos Mazón, who on DANA day was eating until six in the afternoon with a journalist from the region, Maribel Vilaplana.

In the chain of errors detected, there are numerous institutions involved that did not function effectively to mitigate the devastating effects of the climate phenomenon, caused in part by global warming. After giving several versions about his agenda that day, with contradictory versions and now known to be false, it was finally clarified that President Mazón was eating in a restaurant in Valencia until six in the afternoon on the day of the tragedy, when Alarms were already beginning to go off in several municipalities. That is why he arrived two hours late for the meeting with the DANA Crisis Coordination Center (CECOPI), although he assures that he was “informed the entire time.”

But a serious fact also emerged for the security system of the Júcar Hydrographic Confederation, which depends on the Ministry of Ecological Transition, chaired by the socialist Teresa Ribera, and which consisted of sending emails to warn of the rising water in the Forata dam, but at no time was there any warning of the overflowing of the Poyo ravine, which was ultimately the main cause of the floods in towns such as Catarroja, Paiporta, Benetúser, Alfafar, Sedaví and Picanya, the most affected by the disaster. The messages were brief and always in writing, with phrases like “for your information, the flood is very fast.” Despite repeated warnings until a quarter past eight that Tuesday night, when some towns were already flooded with water, the alert was sent to the population.

Another of those most highlighted by the crisis is the Minister of Justice and Interior, Salomé Pradas, who acknowledged that she did not know of the existence of instant alarms on the population’s cell phones until a few minutes before sending them, in addition to being accused by several mayors of the area for not having listened to their calls for help in the desperate situation of their towns.

The majority of those affected by the torrential rains also denounce the helplessness in which they were for six days, without receiving help from the rescue teams or the Spanish Army, which was not mobilized en masse until last Monday and partly due to the altercations that had taken place the previous day in Paiporta, when the kings of Spain, Felipe and Letizia, the president of the government, Pedro Sánchez, and Mazón himself were insulted and attacked.

Finally, from the Royal House it was reported that King Felipe VI plans to go next Tuesday to the towns affected by DANA and that this will culminate the agenda that he had to suspend last Sunday after the repudiation of the victims against the official delegation.