The saga of the duration of the Varna disaster has had an interesting denouement. It turned out that with an order from November 24 of the mayor Blagomir Kotsev, it was extended until December 3 – without him announcing it in advance or subsequently during any of his daily meetings with the media live or through messages on “Facebook”. Such information did not come out from his subordinates either.
The topic was raised on Monday in social networks, as well as by “Sega”. As of 2 p.m. on Monday, we wrote the following:
“9 days after the hurricane last weekend, Varna continues to be in a state of emergency, although for at least a week the weather has been most normal, and life is going on as usual. This whole fact surprises people who follow the affairs of the municipal administration, but there is no official explanation for the reasons.
According to Mayor Blagomir Kotsev on social networks, the state of emergency in the city was announced at exactly 2 o’clock in the morning on November 19. That’s when – Saturday evening – Sunday until noon, the hurricane raged. By Sunday evening the weather had calmed down. From then on it was most normal for the city. Even this past weekend nothing out of the ordinary happened. While three-quarters of the country was frozen by snow, a strong wind accompanied by rain was blowing in Varna – usual for the cold half of the year. Snow fell in the villa areas, the electricity stopped somewhere, trees were broken – also a normal, common situation.
Kotsev had declared a state of emergency without a deadline, that is, until further notice. It was logical that it would last a day or two after the big storm, until the damage was cleared. That’s exactly what Devnya, Dulgopol and Aksakovo did, for example, and Valchi dol partially left it. Everywhere there, in contrast to Varna, apart from a hurricane, there was snow and fierce ice. The weather was quite severe and yesterday, with which Valchi Dol declared a second state of emergency. But the others did not. As it becomes clear, during this entire period, in incomparably better weather, the status of Varna was a complete disaster.
Before noon today, “Sega” addressed a question on the subject to the municipal administration. No answer yet. Kotsev himself, during his daily “Facebook briefing” today, admitted that “we are working in winter conditions, which are not critical at the moment”.
In the event of a disaster, activities are commissioned without public procurement – at the moment. The funds can then be applied to the state through the Commission on Disasters and Accidents. In addition, the hands of the mayors are untied for activities (on infrastructure, for example) that, without a disaster situation, cannot be carried out by him. In a disaster situation, a number of state institutions are involved to help through the headquarters. All of these are, broadly speaking, the advantages of a mayor in emergency management, although in reality it means that he cannot do it alone.
These are the reasons why many municipalities in recent years have declared it at the first opportunity, without a disaster actually present. But the Varna case is definitely interesting. Its absurdity is best seen in the following comparison – Sofia is not in a disaster situation after yesterday, Varna is in a whole 9 days”.
And the development from about 7 p.m. the same day was, that Kotsev’s order dated November 24, uploaded to the website of the Varna municipality, was leaked on social networks. A check showed that such a document really exists (it can be read here – the order at the top). It should be clarified that the website of the municipality of Varna is organized in such a way that the mayor’s orders and other documents are not easy to find – which explains why no one has noticed Kotsev’s order until now. And why he was silent – an even bigger enigma. According to the order, the mayor extended the state of emergency until December 3. The motive – ongoing emergency activities and a bad forecast for the 25th and 26th, which were not really dramatic. This adds up to a total of 2 weeks post-hurricane disaster. And “Now” never received any answers.
In fact, it is clear from the municipal website that Kotsev issued a total of three orders for the state of emergency. The first is from November 19, it sets a deadline for the state of emergency “until its explicit cancellation” – he had announced this publicly. But with the date of November 24, there are two more which were not known – one, correcting the first in the part with the express cancellation, and specifying 7 days as the period from the beginning of the calamity; immediately after that comes another order, namely – for an extension until December 3.
On Tuesday, Kotsev announced that the state of emergency will be lifted on Wednesday. “We are also working for the villa areas and villages, because the people of Varna live there too. I have given all companies and teams until tomorrow to deal with the damage from the storms and we will announce an end to the disaster,” he wrote in another Facebook post. . “The municipality of Varna was left with only one company for winter maintenance – for the Asparuhovo district! I emphasize – one company for one of the districts of Varna. Varna has 5 districts. The other four were left without winter maintenance,” he added. An explanation of the orders, dates and public silence is missing from the post. The writing was long, on many subjects, including how his office smelled bad:
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2023-11-28 13:12:31
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