The survival instinct is trained. The fact that institutions are prepared means they can act automatically according to clear protocols that experts have designed when it is time to think. We need authorities trained to process information, make decisions and coordinate efforts
Natural disasters do not exist. Even something as unpredictable as an earthquake occurs in Japan and rarely has fatal consequences. This happens in Haiti and becomes a disaster, yes, but natural? The images coming from DANA, in the province of Valencia, are moving not only because of what we see, but also because of what we can imagine. We see the dead and survivors wandering in search of their loved ones, we hear the testimony of someone who was holding the hand of a neighbor who ended up being swept away by the waters. We imagine the last agonizing minutes of a woman perched on a car.
DANA is a natural phenomenon; its consequences, no. The figure of at least 158 deaths is not attributable to the rain, but to a lack of foresight. When an entire year’s worth of water falls on a city in eight hours, we can attribute these torrential rains to the fury of nature (and only to a certain extent, since DANAs are more frequent and likely due to climate change). , but we cannot emergency intervention.
Bertrand Russell wrote that civilization is the ability to predict. The international press and governments are shocked, because we are a civilized country. But we failed: we did not live up to ourselves. There are people who have died because they did not go to the upper floor of their house, or because they took the road when they should not have done so. Crisis prevention and management have failed. The fact that there is not even a trace of the missing people 48 hours later shows how unprepared we were. It’s surprising to write it: we were not prepared for a cold drop in the Levante in October.
If this catastrophe can have any meaning, it is to open our eyes to the reality of climate change: thinking about the lives that we can save in the future will give meaning to the human losses of this tragedy. Climate change resilience must stop being a slogan and become decisive public policy. Because they save lives.
Taking responsibility for the tragedy means rigorously analyzing what happened so that it does not happen again. On Tuesday, since ten o’clock in the morning, AEMET warned of a worrying forecast throughout the province of Valencia. Many questions continue to float in the mud. I am at least 14 years old:
- Why was the population only alerted at eight o’clock in the afternoon?
- Why did the University of Valencia send people home mid-morning, while factories, businesses and shopping centers remained as if nothing had happened?
- Did workers know their rights in an emergency?
- Why were home delivery trucks driving on flooded roads?
- Are there clear protocols to restrict population movements?
- Why did the Integrated Operational Coordination Center only meet at five in the afternoon?
- What information prompted the President of the Generalitat Valenciana to say that on Tuesday, at six o’clock in the afternoon, the strongest storm would have left his Community?
- Did the closure of the Valencian emergency unit influence the delay in making vital decisions?
- Until the Valencian government crisis last July, it was Vox which managed Emergencies. Has this instability influenced the response of the regional administration?
- Do people know what a “red alert” means and how they should act?
- Is the population trained to act quickly in the context of torrential rains?
- Do drivers know when and how to get out of the car if the road is flooded?
- Are safe flood shelters identified and known?
- Do people who live in flood-prone areas have the knowledge to deal with an emergency?
For decades we were a country ravaged by terrorism: we were trained to protect ourselves from attacks. 20 years ago, in December 2003, there was a bomb threat at the Santiago Bernabéu. The match was not yet over and the stadium was almost full, but within five minutes, under the leadership of security forces, 70,000 people were evacuated. No one needed to stop and think and everything happened quickly and orderly. There was no rush, no panic: everyone knew how to act.
The survival instinct is trained. The fact that institutions are prepared means they can act automatically according to clear protocols that experts have designed when it is time to think. We need authorities trained to process information, make decisions and coordinate efforts. And we must educate citizens so that going upstairs is not a choice, but an instinct.
