The head of 112 admits that the Spanish government has already planned to send the alert for the flood at 6:35 p.m.

ValenciaA year after the disaster, details are still emerging that highlight the negligent actions of the Valencian government in the late dissemination of the ES-Alert on the day of the catastrophe. One of the new developments was provided this Tuesday by the head of the 112 coordination service, Inmaculada Piles: she admitted before the judge investigating the case that at 6:35 p.m. on October 29 of last year, the head of Civil Protection at the Spanish government delegation in Valencia, Patricia García, had already indicated to her that it was "the message." In other words, the dispatch was already assessed more than an hour and a half before it was disseminated at 8:11 p.m., when most of the 229 fatalities had already lost their lives. In fact, The ARA explained a year ago that the Spanish government had already asked the Generalitat Valenciana to send the alert a few minutes after six in the evening.Piles' statement, therefore, adds to other witnesses gathered by the judge who reveal the inaction of the Ministry of Emergencies headed by the accused Salomé Pradas, but also the passivity of the Valencian president, Carlos Mazón, with his multiple absences, a four-hour meal with journalist Maribel Vilaplana and a string of version changes about when it started to worry about the tragedy.

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According to Piles, the head of the Emergency Analysis Unit, Juan Ramón Cuevas, sent an email to the 112 room with a proposal for writing this message and she, "in parallel" and privately, discussed this possibility with a Civil Protection officer at the Spanish government delegation. It was then that she indicated that it was "necessary" to send the alert, which prompted Piles to raise the proposal to the deputy director general of Emergencies, Jorge Suárez, who replied that they were already "managing it."

In her statement, the head of 112 has confirmed information provided by other witnesses such as the president of the Júcar Hydrographic Confederation (CHX), Miguel Polo, who stated that Pradas had doubts about the legal possibility of imposing a lockdown on the population. According to Piles, it was very difficult to know what would happen, given that work was always carried out behind the scenes. He also said that he would have waited for a special warning from the CHX if any dangerous situation was detected and that he didn't hear Polo say anything about the Poio ravine, even though he was participating in the Cecopio event online.

Previous attempts to send the alert

Despite the 112 head's words, the fact is that as early as 5:15 p.m., at the start of the Cecopio, its chief, Jorge Suárez, had already proposed sending the ES-Alert to the Utiel-Requena Plain region, affected by the possible overflow of the Forata reservoir. This urgent matter was dismissed, just as the one expressed minutes before 6:00 p.m. by the president of the Confederation, who also requested that the ES-Alert be sent to the towns in the Magro basin. Given the situation at the Forata reservoir, the first thought was to confine the population. Then, to evacuate them. At 6:36 p.m., the decision was made to send the ES-Alert. Concern for the reservoir meant that the Poio ravine, which had been overflowing since 6:00 p.m., was ignored. The oversight occurred despite the fact that, from 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. alone, 112 received 2,438 phone calls alerting them to the situation. Overwhelmed, the technicians failed to notify their superiors of the fatal flooding of the ravine, which the Confederation had also warned them about via email at 6:43 p.m. (the information can also be consulted online in real time). Nor did they adequately evaluate the rainfall data.

Cecopi was unaware of what was happening until after 7:00 p.m., when the first images and phone calls from mayors began to arrive. This forced them to postpone sending the alert because they needed to expand their radius. And then it was time to choose the text, a moment in which they held extensive discussions with Jorge Suárez and the head of the Firefighters Consortium, José Miguel Basset, about the appropriateness, content, and geographical scope of the message. Then, the procedure had to be implemented, etc. Finally, the warning was broadcast at 8:11 p.m., but with erroneous content. It asked people to avoid travel, but not for the population to stay at home and in high areas, as a second message had communicated at 8:57 p.m. In any case, it was already too late, and most of the victims had already drowned.

Despite the exhaustive investigation, a year later some unknowns still remain. The main one is what Mazón's role was and whether his absences influenced the late formation of the emergency committee and the equally untimely dispatch of the SE-Alert. Who best can answer these questions? questions is Pradas, who continues to exonerate her former boss and, unlike her former deputy, has not revealed her WhatsApp messages. It remains to be seen whether she will keep this card in case the judicial strategy designed by her defense fails.

While we wait for the former minister's decision, the one who will have to begin explaining herself before the judge will be journalist Maribel Vilaplana, who will have to explain what she knows about what Mazón discussed with Pradas. She will also have to confirm that the PP leader went home after the four-hour lunch and not to the Palau de la Generalitat, where he had apparently gone at 8 p.m. The Consell (Consell) claims that after saying goodbye to Vilaplana, Mazón went to the public building, but they have not provided any records of the bodyguards or the recordings from the Palau's security cameras, which were deleted fifteen days after the disaster.

The state funeral

Those most interested in learning all the hidden details about October 29th are the families of the victims, who will attend the state funeral held in Valencia this Wednesday. A ceremony that will not be attended by either the president of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, or the president of Vox, Santiago Abascal. "I was already in Valencia Cathedral a year ago with the victims and the King and Queen," Ayuso excused herself.

The state funeral will begin tomorrow at 6:00 p.m. and will be attended by the president of the Spanish government, Pedro Sánchez; the leader of the People's Party (PP), Alberto Núñez Feijóo; and the head of the Council, Carlos Mazón. Institutional officials will also be present, such as the presidents of the Congress and the Senate, the Constitutional Court, and the Supreme Court. This attendance partially clashes with the wishes of the families, who, according to sources from the Moncloa, have requested that the ceremony be as non-politicized as possible and that there be no more politicians than family members.