The alleged information blackout that the PP intends to use to justify the delay in decision-making at the Emergency Coordination Center of the Generalitat Valenciana on October 29, the day of the tragic DANA, is being called into question in an important way after the information collected by elDiario .es and made public by the Ministry of Ecological Transition, according to which, the information circulates both with the State Meteorological Agency (AEMET) and the Hydrographic Confederation of Júcar (CHJ) was consistent, and not just with emails and notifications.
In any case, if there was an information blackout, it was the one suffered by various government officials who, despite repeated attempts, were unable to contact either the president of the government Valencian, Carlos Mazón, nor his deputy, during the most difficult hours of the crisis. The first, to have lunch with a journalist and the other, stuck in Xàtiva during the hours of the disaster for a personal matter.
And, despite the fact that the AEMET raised the storm warning to red at 7:36 a.m. and the CHJ issued a hydrological warning due to the overflow of the Poyo ravine, for which the Emergencies activated an alert at 12:20 p.m., the Valencian Government only met with the Integrated Operational Coordination Center (Cecopi) at 5:00 p.m. and only sent the alert message to citizens at 8:12 p.m. hours, when thousands of people were already trapped by the floods which left at least 219 dead.
According to information collected by this newspaper, throughout the day of October 29, calls and email communications between AEMET, CHJ and Emergencies were constant. Concretely, AEMET established telephone communications with the Emergencies of the Generalitat and vice versa up to nine times to update the forecasts, which it published on its social networks: it was at 7:31 a.m.; at 7:36 a.m.; at 7:54 a.m. twice; at 9:43 a.m.; at 11:26 a.m.; at 11:36 a.m.; at 11:37 a.m.; at 11:54 a.m.; at 11:55 a.m.; at 12:01 p.m.; at 1:26 p.m.; at 4:13 p.m.; at 4:23 p.m.; At 6:09 p.m. and 6:10 p.m. AEMET called the Emergency Coordination Center to notify the extension of the red notice that the agency had already communicated at 5:54 p.m., calls which remained unanswered. AEMET had to hang up calls from the Generalitat emergency services at 11:36 a.m., 11:37 a.m. and 11:51 a.m. because they were not clearly heard. They then recovered and updated the connection.
One of AEMET’s key Emergency Civil Protection calls took place at 4:23 p.m. According to the Ministry, the Eastern Prediction and Monitoring Group of AEMET Valencia calls the Civil Protection of the Generalitat and informs them that the warning for the south coast of Valencia was going to be “raised to red again until 6:00 p.m., which ended at 12:00 p.m. and remained orange (in the northern areas of Valencia it remained red until 6:00 p.m. The Ministry of Ecological Transition adds: “They were). informed of the formation of a very slow storm located between the south coast and the north coast, west or southwest of the city of Valencia and Albufera They asked if it was heading towards Valencia. and they were told that it was passing west of Valencia, close to it, but not over it. They were informed that this storm was causing more than 100 mm of precipitation in just one hour and that a tornado was coming. formed to Alginet They responded that they had not received calls of wind, only rain and that was what they were concerned about at the time. They asked what the forecast was for the Utiel-Requena area, because they were receiving calls from there, but they could not access it to carry out relief work due to flooding. Radar images of Valence and the Col d’Harmonie at 06 UTC were consulted and they were informed that at that time it was no longer raining heavily and that it was not forecast to rain again, although rain was expected overnight and that would not occur. calm down until the next morning. “They were told that at that time the worst was on the coast.” At that time, neither the Cecopi had taken place, nor President Mazón had finished his meal.
Between 6:09 p.m. and 6:10 p.m., the Eastern Prediction and Monitoring Group of AEMET Valencia called the Civil Protection of the Generalitat at two different numbers, to report “the extension of 2 additional hours of the red notice on the coast north of Valencia due to the persistence of the storm (in the northern interior and on the southern coast it ended at 6:00 p.m.), but they did not respond to calls. “Later, no incoming call from the Civil Protection of Valencia was received either,” they explain. At these times, the possibility of sounding the alarm to the entire population has already been put on the table, as published in this newspaper.
But the chronology of the Ministry of Ecological Transition goes further. Between 7:25 p.m. and 8:00 p.m., the Vice-President of the Government, Teresa Ribera, called the President of the Generalitat three times. Unable to make contact, it was his chief of staff who wrote to Mazón’s chief of staff. “The chief of staff of the Third Vice President and Minister of Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge, Teresa Ribera, sends a WhatsApp to Mazón’s chief of staff, communicating to him that Ribera urgently needs to speak with Mazón and that he is not able to do so. WhatsApp reception is not confirmed at this time. Mazón’s chief of staff responds on the 30th at 6:44 a.m., indicating that his phone remained inoperable for a few hours and that he shares a second cell phone,” they explain from the Ministry of Ecological Transition. Subsequently, at 7:51 p.m., Ribera’s chief of staff “called Mazón’s chief of staff by telephone. The telephone is out of service or out of coverage.
But the calls continued, according to the chronology provided by the Ministry of Ecological Transition:
“8:00 p.m. The Secretary of State for the Environment, Hugo Morán, calls Minister Pradas to make himself available to him with the ministry’s resources and offers his assistance.
8:04 p.m. First call from the territorial policy advisor of REPER Brussels, Juan Hernández, to Mazón’s chief of staff to establish contact between Ribera and Mazón. No response.
20:04 hours Second call from the territorial policy advisor of REPER Brussels, Juan Hernández, to Mazón’s chief of staff to establish contact between Ribera and Mazón. No response.
8:06 p.m. Third call from the territorial policy advisor of REPER Brussels, Juan Hernández, to Mazón’s chief of staff to establish contact between Ribera and Mazón. No response.
8:17 p.m. Ribera calls Mazón’s cell phone. The phone gave a signal, but Mazón did not pick up.
8:19 p.m. Fourth call from the territorial policy advisor of REPER Brussels, Juan Hernández, to Mazón’s chief of staff to establish contact between Ribera and Mazón. No response.
8:20 p.m. Vice President Ribera writes an SMS to Mazón to let him know that the government is aware of the situation and concerned about civil protection, AEMET and CHJ. He asks her to tell him everything the government can do.
8:20 p.m. REPER’s territorial policy advisor, Juan Hernández, calls Mazón’s chief of staff via the landline of his secretariat. Communication is established. Vice President Ribera speaks with Mazón to offer his help. Mazón tells him that “everything was fine, but this afternoon everything was rushed. Excuse me, I’ll call you in 10 minutes, I can’t talk at the moment. He did not call back, they say from the ministry.
The 8:20 p.m. message is the one that Mazón disclosed to denounce that the ministry had never contacted him until the alert was launched at 8:11 p.m. on October 29.
