The WhatsApp messages from the Aemet representative at Cecopio: "They don't even know what the situation is"

Barcelona / ValenciaThe judicial investigation into the management of the DANA in Valencia has found that the authorities They sent the alert to the population when there were already dozens of people deadWhy did it take so long? Who was responsible? The Valencian president, Carlos Mazón, now claims that on October 29 he arrived at the Integrated Operational Coordination Centre (Cecopi) when the population had already been alerted. Is this true or was he already there before, as some witnesses claim? While the Civil Guard is drawing up a chronology of that day to try to answer all these questions, as ordered by the judge in the case, the whatsapps from the representative of the State Meteorological Agency (Aemet) who participated telematically in the Cecopio meeting, published this Friday by The Country and whose authenticity the ARA has been able to confirm, point to a delay in decision-making and a lack of control of the situation when the tragedy had already broken out.

"The Júcar is rising a lot. There are people trapped. I don't think they even know what the situation is right now." This is one of the messages that José Ángel Núñez, head of climatology for Aemet in the Valencian Country, sent to his colleagues at the agency during the meeting. He sent it at 7:28 p.m., more than forty minutes before the flood alert reached the population. Next, the representative of the state agency communicates that the decision to confine the population has been taken, but not that it has not been executed. "Have they already made it public?" his colleagues ask him. "No. But it is decided. All movements in the province of Valencia are suspended," he answers. The alert was not sent until 8:11 p.m.

Hours before, in previous whatsapps Sent during the meeting that had started at 5 p.m., the head of climatology made the seriousness of the situation clear to his colleagues. At 5.26 p.m. he spoke of a "critical situation", a few minutes later he described it as a "hydrological emergency" and stated that "more water was coming in than they could handle", and at around 5.30 p.m., when he intervened in the meeting, he informed the authorities present of "torrential rain" in the metropolitan area of Valencia. As can be seen from the content of the messages, however, no one made any decision during the first hour of the meeting, which was suspended at around 6 p.m. and did not resume until 7.03 p.m., after José Ángel Núñez Mora told his colleagues: "We are still waiting here, we have been thinking for more than an hour."

Speaking to SER on Friday, the Aemet representative explained that he does not know the reason why the meeting was stopped, which he described as "complex, distressing and stressful", and described as "inexplicable" that the meeting was not called "much earlier". In this sense, he stated that the representatives of the Generalitat Valenciana did not pay attention or did not know how to correctly interpret the warnings that were being sent from Aemet, and denounced that "the lack of leadership was evident". With his voice breaking with emotion, he recalled that at 6 pm there were already people drowning and explained that he decided to make his WhatsApp messages public after listening to the Valencian president, Carlos Mazón, criticizes in an "unbearable" way that his role is questioned on the day of the DANA.

Four months later, the PP politician continues to defend his actions with constant changes in the story of the afternoon and night of the fateful 29th of October, which he tells little by little. This week He said he arrived at Cecopio at 8:28 p.m., 17 minutes after the alert was sent, and the Valencian government has wanted to support this version with the dissemination of the images of his arrival at that time, recorded by video surveillance cameras. However, several witnesses place Mazón shortly before eight in the emergency complex where the Cecopio is located. The chronology commissioned by the Catarroja judge who is handling the case and her investigations seek to clarify it.