What Beas of Guadix It’s paradoxical: we got rid of the DANA which hit the province last week, but the situation in the city remains very problematic. As only 15 liters per square meter fell there and no significant damage was caused, it cannot request, like other neighboring towns, the declaration of a catastrophic zone. But it was already officially requested. The question they ask themselves in the commune is: will theirs be paralyzed because what belongs to others takes priority?
He raises it openly Juan José Porcel, mayor of this town of just over 300 inhabitants who has lived for years clinging to a mountain above him. This is the Castillejo Hill and it goes away. From time to time, large rocks fall on the 31 houses facing it.
The threat is not new, it has existed for twenty years, and it has been brought to the attention of administrations for a long time. “Lives are at stake, if something is not done now, someone could die here,” he told ABC in September 2023, shortly after the attack. Government subdelegation told him that “preventative actions” were enough.
Porcel maintained, and still maintains, that this would be just another patch. Their goal is to dismantle the hill and save the inhabitants of the Perchel district of the danger it represents “and which they do not seem to take into account, given their response”.
File sent
Since then, since this refusal of a definitive solution, the Provincial Councilwhich was “more receptive”, carried out two preliminary projects. The mayor sent the second, accompanied by reports from the 112 emergency service and the fire brigade, to the government sub-delegation and this time he found more empathy.
“The new subdelegate, Jose Antonio Montilla“He told me that the file is already in the hands of the Ministry of the Interior and that only authorization from the Council of Ministers is awaited for the neighborhood to be declared a catastrophic zone and then measures can be taken” , summarizes the councilor.
However, DANA and its terrible consequences –26 million euros in damage in the province and 61 municipalities concerned – could delay things, at least that is what Porcel fears. It would be desirable “for our project to accelerate now, because they have no excuse and because the cost is also one and a half million euros.” “We are independent of whether there was DANA or not, ours was already there, so why do we have to wait any longer?” he asks.
Furthermore, he clarified that the storm did not cause any damage to Beas, but only for the moment. The risk is there, latent, “because when water causes erosion of the rock and generates internal cracks, then there could be landslides laterwhen the ground is dry. It would therefore be damage from DANA, but with a delayed effect. But it might be too late to request a disaster zone that has already been requested. Everything is very confusing, he thinks.
