The consequences of the DANA that devastated much of Valencia on October 29 and the way in which the tragedy was handled that fateful day are still present. After the appearance this Friday of the president of the Generalitat, Carlos Mazónin which he assured that the information during that day was “insufficient, inaccurate and late”, this saturday State Meteorological Agency (Aemet) has responded to president, ensuring that the possibility of the Forata dam collapsing was mentioned That day around 5:30 p.m. in the meeting held by the Integrated Operational Coordination Center (Cecopi).
That is, according to Aemet, more than three hours before the Generalitat ended up sending the alert to the population’s cell phones warning of the risk of extreme rainfall and flooding, which finally occurred at 8:12 p.m. According to members of the meteorological agency present at the meeting on the 29th, between 5 and 6 p.m. they were talking about the worrying situation that they were living in the Poyo ravine and that the Forata dam broke.
The same has been pointed out by sources from the Ministry for the Ecological Transition who were also present at the meeting, who emphasize that the danger faced This prey was considered two hours before Mazón attended the meeting. The president of the Generalitat, however, assured this Friday in the Valencian Parliament that the “imminent” risk of the dam breaking was not known until later, which is why they sent the alert starting at 8 p.m. Likewise, Mazón asserted that when he learned that the situation of the Forata dam was “fragile”, he attended the Cecopi meeting.
But the version of the Aemet members present at that meeting contrasts with that of Mazón. As detailed, the meeting began specifically at 5 p.m. and from the beginning of the meeting until 6 p.m. There was talk that the Forata dam could break and options were even considered such as evacuating the affected municipalities and there was talk of already using the Es-Alert system.
Despite this, At around 6 p.m., that meeting was interrupted and the telematic connection screens went off. until 7 p.m., at which time they were turned on again and there was another debate about what message should be sent to the population.
Alerts to the population
Starting at 7 p.m., already certain that a message had to be sent to a large part of the population warning of what could happen, the possibility of launching a special message for the Forata dam was considered. asking neighbors to go up to the upper floors of the buildings. Likewise, the conversation also revolved around sending a different message to the rest of the population because the risk did not only come from this dam and the hydrological alerts were in fact extended to a larger area.
Due to the slowness with which the decisions were made, and in view of the fact that the population was already beginning to notice the consequences of DANA, these same sources specify that the president of the Júcar Hydrographic Confederation, Miguel Polo, called the mayors of the most affected areas to alert you of the situation.
The Aemet has also pointed out that at no time did it say that the accumulated rainfall They were going to be a maximum of 180 liters per square metersomething that Mazón also maintained this Friday, but that the rainfall was going to exceed that threshold. For this reason, the Aemet stated that places where it was not going to rain were especially dangerous because By not seeing rainfall the population could trust and the reality is that they could suffer major river rises and floods, as ended up happening.