THE Hydrographic Confederation of Júcar (CHJ) informed the Government that it was concerned by the slowness with which decisions were taken at the Integrated Operational Coordination Center (CECOPI) on the day of DANAhit Valencia, particularly regarding the sending of a massive alert to the populationa warning that only reached citizens’ cell phones after 8 p.m., when the villages were already flooded.
As revealed this Wednesday by the Efe agency, the president of the CHJ, Miguel Poloexpressed his concern to the Ministry of Ecological Transition during the afternoon before ““slowness” in decision making before sending out the storm warning, which would end up killing more than 200 people. The ecological transition sources cited by Efe now provide details on what happened in the moments preceding the sending of this alert.
The CECOPI meeting began on October 29 at 5:00 p.m. After a first break, around 6:00 p.m.the president of the CHJ put “on the table” the possibility of sending “massive alerts” to the entire population”, through Es warning system to all cell phones in the province of Valencia, due to the risk situation at the Forata dam.
Polo responded at 7:32 p.m. to a telephone call from the Secretary of State for the Environment, Hugo Morán, a conversation in which he made “an assessment of the situation” and showed his concern about “slowness” in decision-making of CECOPI. “More precisely, the one which concerned the mass alert that should be sent thanks to the Es-alert system, since the delay in its drafting and execution was longer than expected and desired”, according to the sources consulted by Efe.
Political management on the day of the disaster is in the spotlight, among other aspects, precisely because of the delay in sending mass alert to citizens. The decision was adopted during a CECOPI meeting attended by the Valencian president, Carlos Mazondidn’t join until more than two hours after it started because, as it later emerged, I was eating with a journalist to whom he offers to direct Valencian television.
During this same CECOPI meeting, as reported a few days ago by ‘elDiario.es’, Minister Salomé Pradas I was trying to locate itwithout success. That same Wednesday, ‘Levante-EMV’ in turn reported that at 6:10 p.m., two hours before sending the alert, consider the possibility of confining the population. However, this decision was never adopted.
