At 8:50 a.m., emergency services asked not to use the car due to the flooding arriving in Valencia, but were not alerted by mobile until 8:10 p.m.

The serious consequences of the floods suffered in the province of Valencia by DANA last October, which surprised the population and caused dozens of deaths, opened the debate on if public administrations could inform the population before to avoid personal misfortunes.

It is precisely this natural disaster that coincided with the use of a new mobile phone alert system by the Generalitat Valenciana. The system was used for the first time independently this Tuesday after 8:00 p.m.

It was a massive warning. The roar of the beep, which sounded on hundreds of thousands of devices simultaneously, even if they were silentshocked the population and anticipated the scale of what was happening.

“Protection alert due to heavy rain,” the message began. “As a preventative measure, it would be necessary avoid any type of travel in the province of Valencia. Stay tuned for future announcements via this channel and official sources, on GVA112 and À Punt,” he concluded.

The warning, reiterated this Wednesday after 7 a.m., helped to confine the population and avoid multiple trips.

But the waterspout started much earlier, and many citizens they received the message with no room for maneuver. The images of cars being dragged and people trapped on the ground floor are shocking.

The opposition criticizes the autonomous government for “the delay” in using this tool. Sources close to the matter retort that the frustration is generated by the very existence of this new mechanism, and emphasize advance warnings issued through traditional official channels.

In fact, at 8:49 a.m. on Tuesday, a few hours before everything happened, Generalitat emergencies made the recommendation to ““Avoid driving a car if it is not necessary”.

“If there is a risk of flooding, do not approach flood-prone areas as a current of water could surprise you,” the authorities said through this channel.

A few minutes before, his The Emergency Coordination Center has established “situation 1 due to rain in Ribera Alta”. Also the “onealert red level on the southern coast of Valencia”. The devastating consequences of the storm are concentrated in the two areas.

At the same time, he extended the “orange level rain alert to the northern coast of Valencia”, and recalled that it remained within the province. Carlos Mazón himself shared both messages on his social networks.