The Chief General of the Military Emergency Unit (UME), Javier Marcosassured that its troops began to deploy in the province of Valencia on October 29 to 3:41 p.m.“hours before receiving official orders”, when they noticed that “the situation was becoming frankly difficult” due to the flooding that was beginning to occur from the deadly DANA that day.
During a press conference at the Palacio de la Moncloa to take stock of the work of the UME in the area, at which she was also present Defense Minister Margarita RoblesMarcos posted some images to support the thesis that EMU was in the zone “from the first minute”.
“Even though we knew before that the situation was getting worse, at two in the afternoon we learned that the Valencian Community had decreed operational situation 1. We had already been alerted for hours and, as soon as we see that the situation is getting downright difficult well before any elevation to another level, we leave,” he said in general.
More specifically, he emphasized that The first EMU vehicle left the Bétera base “at 3:41 p.m.”. and that it took almost two hours to get to Chiva. Marcos showed some images recorded from one of these vehicles at 6:05 p.m. on the A3 highway, near the aforementioned Valencian city.
“It is said that the truth suffers, but does not perish,” the general proclaimed, stressing that the soldiers who performed “heroic acts” to save people during this journey “do not deserve the information we have” . “There are sectors of the population for whom we arrive latebut we participated in these rescues,” Marcos emphasized.
As detailed, In total, 96 soldiers left Bétera, 56 managed to reach the Utiel-Requena area, but the 40 who did not reach there had to turn back. and during the return trip they rescued people stuck on the highway and responded to warnings to Paiporta that they received from CECOPI.
Javier Marcos states that “tstill not aware of the big picture of what is happening” in Valencia, and is aware that “the information focuses on the cities”, but the actions of the UME also reach “the ground and the lines of communication”.
After that, he showed some images of the evolution of the work in Paiporta, the epicenter of the disaster caused by DANA. In this town, the water transported by the Poyo ravine overflowed, flooding the entire town with mud. “Things have changed,” he emphasizes, but unfortunately “It is not possible to go faster and more efficiently“There is still a lot to do, but we must recognize that a lot has been done,” he acknowledged.
In the same vein, he also explained what the situation is every time it rains and, despite the little water that has fallen these days; “Many garages were flooded again.” He therefore asks to “clean the collectors and sewers”, which cannot absorb excess water.
