The rapid response of regional and local administrations to the second DANA that hit the peninsula in 15 days showed that those who blamed the warning system for the destruction caused by DANA on October 29 did so with interest. Two weeks later, and with the same information channels, the Andalusian, Catalan and Valencian authorities implemented all the necessary measures to reduce the impact of the torrential rains.
Taking into account the red notice from AEMET for this Wednesday and Thursday, the Generalitat Valenciana decreed the alert and sent in time – this time – several messages to cell phones through the Es-Alert system, the Junta de Andalucía expelled thousands of residents from the banks of rivers at risk of overflowing and classes were suspended in Granada and Malaga, while in Catalonia the Generalitat closed roads, including the AP-7 highway, to prevent population movements.
“This new event is much better managed,” says Francisco J. Tapiador, professor of Earth physics at the University of Castilla-La Mancha (UCLM). “The warnings were heeded, the alerts were issued well in advance by the authorities and the population is very aware that an alert of this type is a very serious thing.”
“The action of the administrations in time was essential for the population to be protected with this second DANA,” explains Joanna Ivars, meteorologist from La Sexta. “The alert system works and has worked, as long as the administrations work together.”
About notices and alerts
Unlike what happened two weeks ago, the authorities acted quickly on this occasion after receiving the red and orange notices from AEMET, whose thresholds and dissemination channels are perfectly defined in the Weather Alert Plan (see PDF). Because institutions such as the meteorological agency are responsible for issuing alerts, but it is the administrations which manage the alerts and the measures to be adopted to protect the population.
The way of working at AEMET with regard to issuing opinions is always the same. We always work like this regardless of the situation
Rubén del Campo
— AEMET spokesperson
“The way of working at AEMET regarding the issuance of opinions is always the same,” assures its spokesperson, Rubén del Campo, to elDiario.es. “There is continuous monitoring of the forecasts and when it is noted that there is a high probability that a certain threshold will be exceeded, these alerts are activated and immediately automatically broadcast to the national alert network.” In this sense, the agency followed the same steps as 15 days ago. “We always work like this, whatever the situation,” he says.
“I continue to observe confusion at different levels between warnings and alerts,” veteran meteorologist Ángel Rivera complained online. “Warnings are given by AEMET based strictly on forecasts. With this and other information – which must be taken into account by the Civil Protection authorities – the corresponding community establishes the alert or pre-alert that it deems appropriate.
“The alerts are issued by AEMET and the hydrographic confederations, then the alerts are generated by civil protection organizations and the competent authorities, which depend on different administrations,” he underlines. Francisco Martin Leonmeteorologist and coordinator of RAM (Meteorology Amateur Magazine). “We, the civil servants, have a written action protocol, by regulation. The chain fails when these protocols reach the person who should make the decision to send this message and does not accept it, for whatever reason. »
An interested noise
In recent weeks we have experienced a long chain of negligence and bad decisions by the authorities of the Valencian Community before and after the DANA of the 29th, starting with the disappearance of Carlos Mazón until 7:30 p.m. and continuing with the claims of his advisor. that she didn’t know about the alarm system that went off when people were already drowning. Amid this accumulation of irresponsibility, the accusing finger was pointed at the technicians of AEMET, the Hydrographic Confederation of Júcar and the Ministry of Ecological Transition, despite the evidence indicating that they did their job.
Every system can be improved, even if it works well. But waiting for a community president to take two or three hours to press the button is inconceivable.
Francisco Martin Leon
— Meteorologist and coordinator of RAM (Meteorology Amateur Magazine)
“Every system can be improved, even if it works well,” recognizes Martín León. “But waiting for a community president to take two or three hours to press the button is inconceivable.” “I think political parties need to think about who they place in positions of trust and at the highest levels of administration,” adds Tapiador. “I think the profile of someone without technical knowledge, who has been in the party for 20 years and who is placed in different positions out of loyalty and commitment, is something to rethink.”
There is room for improvement
Even so, experts admit that the coordination system can be improved, and in fact the plans are revised periodically so that everything works better in subsequent episodes. “We are heading towards a violent and more intense type of phenomenon, with very rapid development, so we must have very clear response times and unified messages,” assures Ángel Rivera to elDiario.es. The specialist defends the need to create a “National Center for Monitoring Environmental Risks” to guarantee that the alert system is “integrated” in the decision-making chain.
“In the DANA of Valencia, the predictors did what is established, what the rules say that, in my opinion, must be reviewed,” explains Rivera. According to him, the regulations are insufficient because they were modified at the time of the breakdown of the Tous dam and 40 years have already passed. “We need to consider a profound review of everything, an integrative approach, because we are in a different era. Meteorology in the 1980s was not so fast, perhaps because of the conditions themselves, but we are in an environment that requires other types of reactions and much greater integration of information.
What awaits us is an order of magnitude greater than the disasters we have suffered so far.
Jose Miguel Vinas
— Weather forecaster
“Without management, we run the risk of losing lives, especially in a geographical area like the Mediterranean, where precipitation is historically extreme,” recalls Joanna Ivars. According to him, it is necessary to improve the organization between administrations and above all to educate the population with a protocol to act in the face of this type of adverse events, because even with the alerts activated, in this last episode “we have I saw buses driving around full of water or people driving through floods.
“These high-impact DANAS are responsible for revealing our miseries, one absurdity after another,” explains José Miguel Viñas, meteorologist at Meteored. “I think people, in general, are starting to accept that the risk of being directly affected is starting to be real, but we still think that we will be able to continue our lives more or less as before, when the waters calm down and the storm passes, but what is hitting us is an order of magnitude greater than the disasters we have suffered so far.
