Each new judicial announcement by managers of the largest natural disaster of the century — the one that left 230 people dead in Valencia in October 2024 — reveals the series of failures that caused the scale of the disaster to skyrocket. Valenciana State’s Deputy Director General for Emergency Situations, Jorge Suarez, confirmed on Thursday before the judge of Cataruga (Valencia) investigating the flow that the sending of the mass alert to mobile phones had been delayed because former Minister of Justice and Interior Salome Pradas, who is the main accused in the case, had requested that the Valencian version of the text be corrected. This is what the sources who attended the appearance of Suarez told El Pais newspaper, who was called as a witness, a condition that forces him to tell the truth.
Data is key. The massive mobile alert, called Es Alert, has become the cornerstone of investigations. The notification was sent at 8:11 p.m., after at least 155 people had died. Judge Nuria Ruiz Tubara confirms that if it had been activated earlier, lives could have been saved.
Pradas, according to the witness, delayed notice by changing the dialect of the term Valencia and the names “this” and “kind.” “I looked for Ms. Pradas and told her I had already received the letter. She is coming with the president of the Valencia Provincial Council, Vicente Mombo, and I don’t know who else. advisor He reads again. He pointed out that there the phrase “requests comment” is changed to “requests avoidance.” In his opinion, Pradas and Mumbo “made things (the message) change because of linguistic issues, dialects, etc.”
The commander, who has 12 years of experience as head of disaster management, added that those responsible for coordinating the crisis also ignored his request that the message include a reference to ascending to higher altitudes. More than half of those who died in the flood were elderly people and people with disabilities living in basements and garages.
He added, “I wrote some notes in which I asked to send a message (to residents) immediately to go up to higher areas. This will be at 5:45 p.m..”
Suarez admitted that the extent of the danger began to be felt after five o’clock in the evening. After Sekopi’s call. The senior official explained that the head of the emergency service, Enmaculada Bayles, sent him a message via WhatsApp at 5:38 p.m. About the danger of the Vorata Dam (infrastructure in Yatova (Valencia) which, if it overflowed, could have caused the death of 8,000 people). He pointed out that “there are towns where the water may reach six or seven meters high.”
The deputy emergency manager, a crucial player in managing the tragedy, also acknowledged that the warning had been raised more than two hours before it was sent. When the notification was sent to phones, at 8:11 p.m., at least 155 people were already dead. “At 5:38 p.m., the possibility of using Es Alert was brought back to the table,” he added.
The Emergency Command testified before the trainer as a witness, a condition that required him to tell the truth. His story turned out to be illuminating. Suarez participated in the decisive moments at the Liliana Emergency Coordination Center (Valencia), where the crisis was managed. He was a direct witness to the incident that shocked the device, after hydrological warnings were announced for the Jukar River and the Boyo Valley, which caused the tragedy. He attended the decision-making in Sekopi – where it was decided to send a mass alarm to mobile phones – along with the two people investigated in the case: former chancellor Salome Pradas and who was her deputy during the flood, Emilio Argueso.