Despite the number of deaths caused by the DANA The Military Emergency Unit (Unidad Militar de Emergencias (UME) has planned a morgue in Valencia with capacity for more than 400 deceased.. This has been indicated by the lieutenant general of the UME, Javier Marcos, in a press conference from Moncloa after participating in the monitoring committee of the storm, in which he acknowledged that at an initial moment the morgue was prepared for 100 deceased. The lieutenant general has stressed that the bodies are not in “normal conditions”, they need a “dignified space” and “dignified care”. and the EMU is working hand in hand with the Valencian authorities.
After asking for “patience” to those affected given the complexity of the situation and the mobility problems in the area, the head of the UME has reported that the number of troops of the Armed Forces deployed will go from the current 6,600 to the 7,800 at 20:00 hoursThe number of people who are supporting the operations from afar should be added to this number. “It’s such a complexity that this requires two things: to be disciplined and to have patience“He added, after insisting that “the worst enemy of an emergency is improvisation”.
The lieutenant general has assured that the 7,800 military of the Armed Forces are doing their best and “doubling shifts” after those who return exhausted, but has affirmed that even more troops can be made available. He also detailed that, at the moment, the UME, the Army, the Navy and the Air Force are working on the emergency. present in the 69 affected localities, but has stressed that the emergency is also occurring on the roads linking the affected localities, where there are bridges and isolated houses. “We did not leave a house behind,” he assured.
He has guaranteed that the UME is attending to “all requests” by reason of “opportunity”, since they are receiving calls from the autonomous communities, mayors, neighbors and, without questioning any of them, it is ordered that the troops go to this point. “The damage is terrible, but the degree of destruction is such that mobility is limited,” he explained.
Green light from Mazón to intervene
He also wanted to emphasize in his speech that “who leads” in alert level 2 is the autonomous community. “Who decides who goes and who does not go is the autonomous community, it is the director of Emergencies who says in this sector and in this other and, from there, we begin to act on our orders“, he argued, despite the fact that the president of the Generalitat Valenciana, Carlos Mazón, said Monday in an interview on the Cope that military commanders act ex officio once help is requested.
Mazón also said that it is the military commanders who detect if it is necessary that more detachments come once the aid has been activated. Something that has been corroborated by the head of the UME, who admitted that he has it corresponded to him to size the number of troops according to the severity. “Initially we acted with 250 soldiers of which 100 managed to arrive, we were among the few who arrived that afternoon, it was impossible because of the floods,” he said.
In this sense, he has argued that “technically” it was possible to send in 10 minutes, as soon as he received permission from the Generalitat, the 7,800 military that are going to deploy now, but it would have been “absolutely unreasonable to overreact”. “in an emergency zone when there are a lot of actors, when the backlog of services are starting to act and you don’t know exactly where they are. “7,800 was impossible for them to get there, it was far-fetched. Everything has its time“he said.
The lieutenant general of the UME, responsible for these operations, has narrated what happened last Tuesday, October 29, when the great flood occurred. He indicated that the UME had been following the emergency situation. since before the emergency was declared. In fact, it activated the two tools at its disposal: early warning and forward deployment. Specifically, he ordered a battalion of 500 soldiers to go to their posts so that, as soon as there was authorization from the Generalitat, they would enter the area.
“It took my soldiers 15 minutes from the time I gave the order until they left and moved in very difficult conditions“, has specified Javier Marcos, who has stressed that the UME were among the few emergency services that were able to enter the area of Utiel-Requena. “When many services could not do it because they were blocked, we were prepared, alerted and ready to intervene when there was a green light,” he said.
They did not do it before because of the “meteorology” and because of “order and discipline. “We cannot add chaos to what is an absolutely chaotic situation.”he argued. According to the UME received the green light from the Generalitat, its head has assured that they were coordinating until they were fulfilling the “objectives” and, at this moment, they are already in a position to say that there are 7,800 coordinated military.