The president of the Generalitat Valenciana, Carlos Mazón, entrusts responsibility for the immediate management of the Dana crisis to the central government and military commands. In an interview with Cadena COPE, the leader of the Valencian PP said that last Tuesday, at 3:21 p.m., before the “meteorological revolution” that occurred at night in the province of Valencia due to the dana, he asked that the EMU be s ‘is activated and asked for “all possible help”.
The request for help was limited to the municipalities of Utiel and Requena, approximately 50 kilometers from Chiva and 70 from Aldaia. The press release from the Ministry of Justice and the Interior indicates that they asked the Government Delegation “to incorporate the Military Emergency Unit to intervene in the area of Requena and Utiel, which is experiencing a heavy episode of rain which caused the Magro River to overflow, and their action is necessary to collaborate in the rescues.
The President of the Generalitat insisted several times during the interview that the Hydrographic Confederation, “dependent on the ministry of Teresa Ribera”, had removed the warnings. “It has been deactivated up to 3 times,” he assured. Government sources assure that hydrographic confederations do not issue alerts and that the competent bodies to issue hydrological alerts are the regional emergency services.
“On Tuesday at 3:21 p.m., the UME was activated, the Confederation deactivated the disturbances three times,” Mazón emphasizes during the interview, where he insists that “once the UME is activated, no one ‘needs an autonomous government to demand more.’ reinforcements, it is the UME’s own operational command which, if it needs reinforcements, calls Torrejón and they join. That’s why, he says, they asked for help from the start. “If it depended on political authority, it would be so absurd (…) [La ayuda] “We asked from the start for the greatest necessary deployment,” insists the leader of the Valencian people. “These are the operational military commands” which are managed, maintains the leader of the Valencian PP.
Mazón insists in the interview that the risk alert at the Forata dam is sent around seven in the afternoon by the confederation. Separates rain alert from flow alerts. Asked about the alerts, he replied: “The hydrological alerts are sent to us by the ministry of Teresa Ribera due to the dangers of overflowing rivers, ravines and canals,” explains Mazón, who highlights “the lack of maintenance and investment of ravines and canals”. chains. » He continues: “When the hydrological alert is activated early in the morning, it is then deactivated three times. And it was only at 6:45 p.m. (…) that it was said that everything had changed. Half an hour later, the message arrived about the possible rupture of the Forata dam,” says Mazón. The Forata Dam is located on the Júcar River and has stopped the overflow. It is the bed of the Poyo ravine – or Rambla de Chiva – which caused the flooding of the Horta Sud.
At 12:20 p.m., according to a document from the Emergency Agency of the Generalitat Valenciana, a hydrological alert is issued on Rambla del Poyo due to an increase in flow in Riba-Roja del Túria. This is the ravine which crosses the municipalities of Horta Sud and which overflowed at 7 p.m., as shown by numerous videos and testimonies. The “advice to the population” which appears in this notice specifies: “Do not approach the banks of rivers and ravines which could be active”. The Poyo ravine or Chiva rambla crosses the center of Paiporta, Picanya, separates Catarroja from Massanassa and Benetússer, crosses Sedaví and ends at Albufera. Another document from the same regional agency alerts of the risk in Forata at 6:10 p.m. and recommends evacuating the population.
Regarding the deleted tweet, which includes an appearance in which he reports that the storm will subside, he assures that he limited himself to reading the information from AEMET. Asked what information he had at the time of his appearance, he replied: “What AEMET gave us” and affirmed that the Government delegate “said the same thing”. The Valencian president insists that at 7:30 a.m., 112 set the red level and that “thanks to this forecast alert”, they informed the town halls, who were able to suspend classes. Aemet’s report, he claims, was at 12 a.m. “that the rain, not the flood,” would subside, and this he noted at the hearing . “I don’t want to blame anyone but there was a meteorological revolution,” he emphasizes, emphasizing that “then the alert was reactivated.” They deleted the tweet so as not to confuse the population who consulted it because it had become obsolete, he defends.
