The Provincial Deputation of Valencia sent all its workers home on Tuesday October 29 at noon, due to DANA due to the “very high risk for the population”. The institution, according to the documentation in possession of elDiario.es and was able to confirm it from sources internal to the institution, sent an email to all its employees recommending that from 2 p.m. on the day of the disaster, all work centers would remain closed “to avoid risks for workers”. This personalized message intended for the rest of the citizens of the province of Valencia was only sent by the Emergency Department of the Generalitat at 8:12 p.m., more than six hours later, when water was already covering the municipalities of Horta South.
According to this official email, the Provincial Delegation of Valencia carefully weighed the risks and sent its workers home before 2 p.m., which allowed many to return home before the situation worsened. And in Chiva, Utiel and in the communities bordering the Xúquer, they were already experiencing historic floods. Just at 1 p.m., the President of the Generalitat himself calmed the storm and announced that it would calm down in the province of Valencia at 6 p.m.
The email from the Provincial Deputation to its employees states: “On the occasion of DANA, whose forecast – according to AEMET and the Emergency Coordination Center – is that it will pour forcefully into Valencia in the coming hours and therefore the intense rains cause the activation of the red notice, which represents an extreme meteorological risk with a very high risk for the population, has been decided as a preventive measure: Suspend today, 10/29/2024, the activity in the dependent work centers of Valencia The Provincial Council from 2 p.m., will remain closed from the aforementioned time to avoid risks for workers.
Despite this recommendation, some officials of the Provincial Council remained at work beyond 2 p.m. and, visibly, the workers of the Provincial Fire Consortium and the members of the brigade worked completely normally.
It should be remembered that the Provincial Consortium of Firefighters of the Provincial Delegation of Valencia is present throughout the DANA operation and its owner, José Miguel Basset, maintains that the SMS notification and alert management were carried out correctly and according to protocol.
