At 10:30 a.m., the head of the Vice President and spokeswoman for the Valencian government, Susana Camarero, began appearing at the congressional investigative committee on Aldana. The Minister of Social Services, who is also responsible for the residences where six elderly people lost their lives as a result of the flood, must immediately respond to every question asked by MPs. He will also have to explain the lack of help received by about three dozen telecare users who lost their lives despite many of them seeking help from the service. The waiter answered with some inaccuracies and contradictions. This was the most striking.
“Telecare is a care service and not an emergency. Functionality is defined in the contract specifications.”
vagueness. It is true that the telecare service is essentially auxiliary, but it is no less true, as elDiario.es reported, that the contract specifications also provide for giving notifications to users in emergency situations such as Dana. The service specifications drawn up by Generalitat stipulate “immediate response to emergency situations or situations of insecurity, loneliness and isolation” of users. It is a wide range of needs that provides a service that is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and is highly appreciated by elderly users and their families. The winning company also has a “protocol for operating in situations of serious risks and emergencies”, such as epidemics, “adverse weather events (heavy snowfall, heavy rain…)” or “floods” and “fires”. Camarero defends that all calls were answered and that protocol stipulated that distress calls be transferred to Emergency 112.
“It was not known that there would be a flood in La Horta Sud because there was no rain,” Camarero said in response to Podemos MP Javier Sánchez, who asked him why elderly people from some public housing living next to the valley were not evacuated as happened a month ago due to a fire, as one of the caregivers of a deceased elderly woman stated before the judge.
vagueness. What was known since early morning was the presence of a red level warning for Aemet activation, the highest level indicating forecast water accumulation due to rain of at least 90 liters per square meter in one hour or at least 180 liters per square meter in twelve hours. This means that there is an “extraordinary risk” to persons and property. The red warning was activated at 9:40 a.m. throughout the province of Valencia. Apart from the lack of rain at a specific point, there is a risk of flooding due to heavy rains that fell on the headwaters of the rivers and valleys. The state itself activated two hydrological alerts in the morning for this reason in the Magro River Basin and the Puyo Valley.