How did they get so high up?

In short: the media reports from early morning that a catastrophic downpour is coming in the afternoon; the absent president goes to lunch until the wee hours and gives orders not to be disturbed; and when he receives a message before he even gets to speak, informing him that the situation is getting worse, he replies, "Damn it." By five in the afternoon, they already know that even the Spanish army helicopters haven't been able to fly over Utiel to rescue a hundred people. The regional minister wants to confine people and send out a mobile alert when there are already dozens of drownings, and the absent president's right-hand man replies, "No way of confining people," because "Confining a province is madness." The final toll is 230 dead.

We could add all the details that have come to light, but this brief summary makes it clear that a group of unqualified managers could not have performed worse in the face of the devastating floods than the top political leaders of the Valencian regional government. This alarmingly raises the question of how they understand politics, what kind of training they receive from the parties they belong to, and what interests they believe they should prioritize. Political parties and institutions are full of those responsible, but these 230 deaths cry out for an internal audit to ensure that something as crucial as public safety never falls into such incompetent hands.

They were fatally late and doing things badly, and they still refused to ask people to stay home, because they believed that lockdowns went against freedom. It's huge.