Given the violence of the rainfall, it is difficult to know whether the number of victims would have been less high. But fourteen days after the floods that left 222 dead and dozens missing, according to the latest estimates, residents of the Valencia region in Spain are still asking themselves a question: why is the civil security alert message only received on mobile phones? at 8:12 p.m. on October 29, when many people were already trapped or swept away by the rising water?
“We are only transmitting what the weather tells us. “Technical experts react and issue alerts accordingly.”defended Carlos Mazón, president of the Valencian autonomous community, on October 31, and recalled that the weather forecasts had fluctuated throughout the day on October 29 before turning clearly red, with local authorities deciding to send the message of caution.
As required by a European directive of December 2018, Spain was equipped, in June 2022, with a national alert system, ES-Alert, to warn the population of a danger (fire, storm, flood, terrorist attack, industrial accident , etc.) by sending a message to the mobile phones of people located in a specific area.
Numerous tests were carried out in different regions and the service was activated for the first time in real conditions, in September 2023, in Madrid, to avoid heavy rains. But they fell further to the west, causing controversy over the reliability of forecasts from the meteorological agency Aemet and the misuse of ES-Alert.
Fear of panic
Were the Valencian authorities being too cautious? The message sent on the afternoon of October 29 asking the population, “as a preventive measure”not move “in the province of Valencia, to avoid the collapse of the roads”Was it explicit enough? Alerts “You can’t throw it at random. They affect thousands of people and mishandling this information can have the opposite effect to that intended.justified José Miguel Basset, Valencia fire chief, two days after the floods. The fear is that the message will generate panic and increase the identified danger.
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