Nearly three days after the DANA disaster in Valencia, emergency officials are beginning to measure the extent of the tragedy. The Integrated Operational Coordination Center (Cecopi) of the Generalitat Valenciana, institutional epicenter of the response to the disaster, manages a provisional figure of 1,900 missing people, registered on the telephone number made available to people seeking to find their loved ones. This is a provisional number of people reported missing to the emergency service 112, which has set up a special telephone number. The figure is provisional. Indeed, this Thursday, 600 missing people were finally found during the day. The figure of 1,900 missing could also be reduced as people initially considered unlocated are located.
The minutes of the Cecopi meeting this Friday, to which elDiario.es had access, record a figure of 200 dead and 70 bodies located whose official removal has not yet taken place, according to data provided by the Civil Guard. At the Cecopi, chaired by President Carlos Mazón and also attended by the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, alerts were issued about the possibility of deaths in muddy vehicles on secondary roads.
The Ministry of Health’s representation warned that hospitals were “on the verge of collapse”. The situation, as the minutes show, is particularly worrying at La Fe hospital in Valence.
Since the start of the DANA disaster last Tuesday, which affected the regions of Horta Sud and Utiel-Requena and left a provisional toll of 202 dead, the emergency telephone number 112 has received 75,000 calls.
During the Cecopi meeting, the Civil Guard detailed the provisional number of bodies: so far, 124 autopsies have been carried out and 17 bodies have been identified. In the warehouses of the Institute of Legal Medicine (IML) of the City of Justice are 138 bodies.
The government delegate in the Valencian Community, Pilar Bernabé, indicated that there is a team of around a hundred forensic experts, which could be reinforced with reinforcements. There are also psychologists in the field posts of the Civil Guard, the National Police, the Generalitat Valenciana and the Red Cross.
Deployment of EMU and firefighters
The field deployment of the Military Emergency Unit (UME) focused on the sectors of Requena, Utiel and Chiva as well as Picanya and Paiporta, where the impact of the disaster is “high”. Pilar Bernabé, however, requested that army personnel be distributed across all sectors.
For their part, the members of the Provincial Firefighters Consortium focus on Torrent, Aldaia, Alaquàs, Sedaví, Benetússer, Massanassa, Alfafar, Albal, Catarroja, Beniparrel and Silla. There are also reinforcements from firefighters from the City Hall of Valencia and Catalonia, Madrid, Seville and Granada, in addition to 32 teams of forest firefighters.
During the Cecopi meeting, Pilar Bernabé stressed the need to stop the avalanche of volunteers coming on foot from the capital to the La Torre district, on the other side of the Turia riverbed.
President Carlos Mazón showed his agreement on the need to stop the voluntary movement which, despite its good intentions, led to a certain collapse. During the meeting, the need to seek a legal solution and contact the mayor of Valencia, María José Catalá, to discuss the issue was raised. After the meeting, Mazón discussed in a press conference with Fernando Grande-Marlaska the possibility of restricting mobility to clear the way for emergency vehicles.
The meeting also discussed the difficulty of contacting and coordinating with municipal councils due to the lack of telephone coverage.
In Cecopi, the state of the roads, vital infrastructure for organizing the deployment, was explained. The national 330 and 322 remain closed, the machines being expected this Friday, while work continues on the A7, A3, V30 and V31 motorways. Concerning the restoration of the A7 bridge, it is expected that it will take “a few weeks”.
