Up to 32 alerts of incidents on the roads due to floods and landslides – 17 of which were interrupted – were issued by the Cegesem (Center for Management of Mobility Assistance Services) of the Generalitat Valenciana before 1:00 p.m. on DANA Day, DANA said. on the fateful October 29. Some notices that he gave to the Ministry of Environment, Infrastructure and Territory and which did not serve to activate any specific emergency alert to warn of the risk in mobility, according to information collected by elDiario.es and advanced by El Confidencial.
This was confirmed by Minister Vicente Martínez Mus himself, who explained in À Punt that Cegesem has “its programmed alerts” and that these are “those that correspond to Aemet’s alerts”. Martínez Mus defended that more restrictive measures should not be taken, saying that “the corresponding decision in this sense is to put some roads in prevention, to cut others, mainly local and provincial roads that could be affected” , he assures. “a programmed protocol” and that “these alerts at those times were consistent and corresponding to those which were also issued from the Emergency Department”.
These road closure notices were also made public through the 112, incidents that were concentrated in the morning especially in the region of Ribera Alta, but which also reached Hoya de Buñol and Requena and Utiel, the latter being the sources of the Poyo ravine. It is in these areas that most of the precipitation and a large part of the 220 deaths recorded until Wednesday were concentrated.
Basically, these were secondary roads belonging to the Provincial Delegation of Valencia, as well as the Department of Infrastructure, but an important road belonged to the State, the A-7 highway was closed from 9 a.m. morning near Alcúdia, towards Alicante.
Until then, President Carlos Mazón and his government maintained their daily agenda, while many municipalities suspended classes and institutions such as public universities or the Diputació de València asked their students and workers not to travel. at their workplace.
Already in the afternoon, at 3:58 p.m., while Mazón was eating, the notice (dating from 3:15 p.m. from Cegesem) indicated that the number of roads with incidents had increased to 37, of which 23 were closed. among these two were the A-7 and A-3 highways, and the rest of the provincial and regional property in the same regions.
At that time, after 3 p.m., the Minister of Justice and Interior, Salomé Pradas, summoned the Cecopi, the interministerial body for coordinating the management of emergency situations, although the meeting did not started only at 5 p.m. The Minister of Infrastructure himself maintained his institutional agenda and attended a CEV event with business awards.
This Thursday, the spokesperson and vice president of the Consell, Susana Camarero, declared that Carlos Mazón had not suspended his meal “because he had no information from Aemet or the CHJ (Confederation hydrographic survey of Júcar) according to which it must be elsewhere”.
The ES-Alert message recommending not to drive on the road did not arrive until 8:12 p.m. The next call from 112 regarding road incidents didn’t come until 10:30 p.m., so there were already 68 roads in trouble, 45 of which were closed.
