A three-digit number, easy to remember and quick to dial, became the epicenter of hundreds of calls from Aragon last Tuesday, October 29. Specifically, There were 337 incidents handled including 112 in Aragoneven when the disaster had not yet reached the community.
At the end of the afternoon, before a night that promised to be intense, the first emergency calls began to arrive. “The lines in the Valencian Community were saturated. There were no problems here, but People couldn’t contact family, partners or friends and were calling emergency services looking for answers.“, said the head of the security and civil protection service, Jorge Crespo.
Communication “impossible”
Without a line to contact, the technicians’ solution for sending messages was “use email”where they sent each of the notices of the people concerned. Coordination in parallel with the Valencia service that Crespo describes as “very complicated”, rather “impossible” due to signal saturation.
This first day was a warning of what was going to happen to the community: “An extraordinary phenomenon, although not serious in comparison,” he emphasizes.
And, although it seemed that the night would not end, the second day arrived: Wednesday November 30. The water began to drop sharply in the Matarraña, in the region of Lower Aragón, Maestrazgo and Huerva, mainly. Aemet forecasts have declared a red alert in these municipalities. It’s at that moment “the bad weather plan has been activated coordinating all emergency systems in the community,” Crespo says.
Firefighters, health workers, civil guard and various emergency services managed from a platform which recorded the 314 incidents. Now yes, this only concerns the Aragonese community.
However, “here we don’t experience anything we haven’t seen before,” he mentions. This dates back to July 6, 2023, when the Third Belt flooded Zaragoza. “If the daily average is 1,600 calls, that day they doubled to 2,700”he emphasizes, and adds that these types of emergencies “are experienced with every DANA that arrives in the community.”
Protocol
But how is the situation managed from room 112? “In each call, the most important thing is the formulation of the questions, which are marked by the protocol. The most important thing is to know what the person at risk needs.“explains Crespo.
Depending on the type of call, certain services are launched. “This is when the different emergency systems are coordinated to help those affected,” he emphasizes.
In the case of extraordinary phenomena, like DANA, the protocol to follow is divided into different phases. During the first days, “while the storm was still present”, the emergency systems focused on helping the affected municipalities. “basic supplies”. That is to say, light and water.
Faced with the end of the storm, the next stage (which begins with the end of the rains) focuses “on recovery of affected areas“, describes the head of the security and civil protection service. This is why, starting this Friday, troops will work to restore basic services in the affected municipalities.
