What the President of the Generalitat, Carlos Mazón, did during key hours to manage the DANA alerts and warn Valencians of the imminent arrival of the flood remains a mystery. Mazón imposed the informative boltonly giving interviews to 13TV and COPE, try to control history while his team attempts to rewrite its agenda for this day and deflect responsibility to central government.
But as the hours pass and more details become known, Mazón’s contradictions become evidentthe gaps between what the president actually did and reality: the Generalitat failed to interpret or make agile and appropriate decisions regarding the risk of DANA, its effects and its possible consequences.
The facts are as follows. On Tuesday 29, AEMET issued an advisory at 6:40 a.m. Three hours later, at 9:41 a.m., the red alert was established and at 12:20 p.m. the Emergency Center issued the alert due to the accumulation of flows in Rambla Poyo.
However, it was not until 5 p.m. that the Emergency Coordination Center (CECOPI) met, and this was without the presence of the President of the Valencian Generalitat, Carlos Mazón, even though he had not no commitment on the agenda. During this meeting, the Hydrographic Confederation of Júcar (CHJ) sent an email alert regarding the high flow, warning that it continued to increase and that the flood was “very rapid”. A few key hours to launch an early warning which could have avoided, according to experts, hundreds of deaths.
What was Mazón doing? The president spent the morning of Tuesday October 29, DANA day, making two institutional acts. At 11:46 a.m., at the Palau de la Generalitat, Mazón presided over an event. In this document they award it an award for the alleged sustainability of its tourism strategy. He poses with his certificate to the applause and smiles then continues with his agenda.
Meanwhile, and with the alert of AEMET, at the same time, a truck driver in Alzira was in danger due to the rain. The firefighters managed to save him, he was stuck in his truck by the water.
“According to forecasts, the storm is diverted towards the Sierra de Cuenca, so it is expected that at 6 p.m. it will decrease in intensity in the rest of the entire Valencian Community,” Mazón said the same morning during Another event he took part in after receiving his award. Something that didn’t happen. The streets began to flood and it was not until 7:30 p.m. that Mazón joined CECOPI.
But between 2:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m., neither the location nor the functions performed by Mazón are known with certainty.. This Thursday, November 7, the Valencian president explained in a message to the media that he was participating in a “working lunch” and that he was “in constant communication.” A few days earlier, the Generalitat had spoken of a “private meal”, without giving further details, and of further work at the Palau. Today, we are talking about a “private business lunch”.
Also It is not certain that Mazón will be reachable and he knew of DANA’s advances. The journalist of “Cadena Ser” Miguel Ángel Campos revealed this Thursday in Conspiranoicos what was the question to which the Minister of Justice and head of emergencies of the Generalitat Valenciana, Salomé Pradas, did not answer. He sent him a questionnaire of 13 questions and He answered almost all of them, except the one which mentioned whether he had informed Carlos Mazón “punctually in the morning and afternoon” of Tuesday October 29.
Precisely, contradictory versions also afflict this councilor. Pradas assured public television that it was only at 8:00 p.m. that he learned of the possibility of sending the alert. to the mobile phones of Valencians. However, a recording of the meeting, broadcast by “Cadena Ser” and which some present put it at 7:00 p.m., denying his version. In this audio, it was already a question of how to inform the population. The Minister of Emergencies and the Government delegate participate in the conversation, listening to a technician explain the alert process to the population.
The alert came to the devices at 8:12 p.m., when the rivers had already overflowed and flooded towns like Paiporta, Catarroja, Sedaví, Picanya, Massanassa, Benetússer and Algemesí.
.
