An interview on the Cope community of the president of the Generalitat, Carlos Mazón, has opened the cover of thunder this Monday, as a result of the favored has tried to defend himself from criticism in regards to the delay in massively warning the inhabitants of the hazard by telephones. cell phones final Tuesday, when the rains brought on by a dana claimed the lives of tons of of individuals. Mazón has assured that the discover from the Emergency Coordination Center was not despatched earlier than as a result of the Júcar Hydrographic Confederation (CHJ) deactivated the hydrological alert as much as “thrice; at one, three and 4″ and it is not until “1 / 4 to seven” – that is, an hour and a half before the message was sent to the citizens’ cell phones – when the seriousness of the situation is conveyed. with rainfall of “up to 1,700 liters” in the Utiel and Requena area. The confederation depends on the central government; the Emergency Coordination Center of the Generalitat.
The truth is that hydrological alerts in situations in which floods may occur are not activated by the confederation or Aemet (the State Meteorological Agency), but by the Emergency Center, which is the one that centralizes the information it receives from different areas. “It is with the cross-analysis of all the data that decisions are made,” the Ministry for the Ecological Transition assured this Tuesday, which has sent up to two press releases to refute Mazón’s words. Of course, in order to activate hydrological alerts, emergency centers have the valuable information provided by Aemet and, in this case, the Júcar confederation, where the municipalities hardest hit by dana are located.
Five days before the deadly floods, Aemet had warned of the danger of the coming rains. And from 7:36 a.m. the red warning was activated, the most serious of all, in the interior of the province of Valencia. But Mazón’s words to defend himself against criticism have put the focus this Monday on the confederation and its alleged lack of clarity when warning of the risk.
The other key leg in this matter is the confederation, which has an Automatic Hydrological Information System (SAIH) that automatically monitors flows in which the information is automatically updated. But when certain thresholds are exceeded (150 cubic meters per second in this case), emails are sent to Civil Protection. That fateful Tuesday the confederation technicians sent five emails. In the first and last, it was warned that the waters were rising “very quickly”; In the other three, a decrease in flow was pointed out. But, in any case, they confirm that the confederation did not activate or deactivate any hydrological alert, because it is not its responsibility to do so, sources from the Ministry for the Ecological Transition emphasize.
12.07. The confederation sends the first email warning that the three alarm thresholds – 1, 2 and 3 – have been exceeded on Rambla del Poyo. At 11:40, 264 cubic meters per second were recorded, above the 150 of threshold 3. And the “trend is upward.” In just half an hour, sources from the Ministry for the Ecological Transition explain, a flow rate went from 27 to 264 cubic meters. In fact, it is warned that “the flood is being very rapid.” It is from that threshold when the CHJ protocols indicate that the Civil Protection and the Generalitat must be warned through emails, they add from the Ecological Transition. Although these sources insist that the information continues to be updated on the web every five minutes.
12.20. With this information, the Emergency Coordination Center of the Generalitat activated the “hydrological alert in the riverside municipalities of the rambla.” This is the competent body to activate this type of alert. And on Tuesday the warning on the Poyo Rambla was not deactivated, despite the fact that for a few hours the flow of this ravine decreased.
13.42. From the SAIH a second email is sent referring to the boulevard in which it is indicated that it has dropped below threshold 3 (150 cubic meters per second). In fact, at 1:20 p.m., 120 had been registered with a “declining trend.”
15.04. The flow continues to decrease in the boulevard and in a new email the SAIH indicates that it has dropped below risk level 2 (70 cubic meters per second). At 2:35 p.m., 55.86 cubic meters were recorded, “with a downward trend.”
16.13. A new email reports the “decrease in flow” in the Rambla del Poyo. It is indicated that at 3:50 p.m., 28.7 cubic meters per second were recorded (below the 30 that are set for the first flow threshold). And it is again indicated that there is a “downward trend”.
18.43. Two and a half hours later, a new email arrives referring to the Rambla del Poyo, which portrays a situation that is already out of control. Because at 6:40 p.m. the flow is 1,686 meters per second, more than 11 times above the 150 that are established as warning threshold 3 in the confederation protocols.
Between the 4:13 p.m. and the 6:43 p.m. email, the first meeting of the Cecopi (Integrated Operational Coordination Center) took place and according to the ministry there was a “verbal notification of the general increase in flows, especially in the Magro River and the Júcar River.” . At 5:30 p.m. the Generalitat Emergency Center issues another hydrological alert due to the increase in flow in the Magro River. Meanwhile, in one of the reservoirs in this area, Forata, the ministry activates the maximum risk level due to the danger of that dam breaking. And Ecological Transition sources explain that the efforts of the technicians were focused on that dam.
18.55. A little more than ten minutes after the last email from the SAIH to Civil Protection, the measuring station on the Rambla del Poyo is destroyed by water. The latest data it shows is 2,282 cubic meters per second, almost double that of just 12 minutes before.
The Generalitat doesn’t ship the message to all of the warning telephones till 8:12 p.m.
https://elpais.com/clima-y-medio-ambiente/2024-11-04/lo-mails-de-la-confederacion-del-jucar-a-la-generalitat-sobre-el-barranco-del-poyo-la-crecida-esta-siendo-muy-rapida.html