The Generalitat Valenciana sent the alert to citizens’ cell phones warning them of the risk of flooding at 8:12 p.m. on October 29twelve minutes after receiving a call from Hugo MoránSecretary of State for the Environment of the ministry headed by Teresa Ribera. This was reported this Thursday by the Minister of Justice and Interior and head of Emergencies of the Generalitat, Salomé Pradas. “It moved me that I couldn’t be sure that the reservoir wouldn’t overflow or break. of Forata and there we decided to activate the alert”, he indicated in statements to À Punt.
Pradas has assured that the first alarming warnings about the effects that the DANA In the region they were received at 2:00 p.m. by the mayor of Utiel, who warned of the overflowing of the Magro River. “Neither the AemetNeither the Confederation nor the Government delegate previously notified us of this circumstance.“, the councilor complained. In addition, she explained that after the mayor’s notice the decision was made to request the activation of the Military Emergency Unit (EMU). At 5:00 p.m. the Cecopi was convened, a meeting that was not attended in person by the Government delegate in the Valencian Community, Pilar Bernabé, nor by any representative of the Júcar Hydrographic Confederation, he stated.
The Valencian councilor also recalled that the delegate met with the mayors of the affected areas in the morning and that after that meeting she was not informed of “any alarming data.” Furthermore, he has stressed that he was not offered the deployment of the UME, although as the Chain Beingthe Government delegate called Pradas three times before the Generalitat requested military intervention. In those calls, Barnabas conveyed to him the seriousness of the situation and also told him that he could ask for all the resources he needed.
He Valencian president, Carlos Mazónhas denied, for his part, that he was at a birthday celebration meal that day. “I categorically deny itit was a working lunch and that’s it,” he said and assured, in brief statements to the media before participating in Cecopi, that “he was personally in touch with everything that was happening all the time.”
Barnabas this Thursday refused to enter into the controversy. “The Government of Spain is absolutely focused on address the emergency and post-emergency because it is an absolute necessity now. If those responsible who have to be distributing and coordinating all the emergency tasks dedicate themselves to saying whether I did or did not do or did not do, we are failing the citizens,” he defended.
“Citizens do not need us to be saying what we did and did not do. That will come, don’t worry. Each one will have to answer to many people and in many places,” he predicted, but insisted: “Now the people who need They don’t deserve us to be arguing of these issues. “They deserve for us to continue working.”
Pradas, however, has insisted that Barnabas knew what was happening but he did not communicate it. “The Government of Spain can activate the EMU at any time, it is not necessary for the Generalitat Valenciana to request it,” he stressed.