Javier Marcos, chief general of the Military Emergency Unit (UME), has defended this Saturday the performance of its personnel on October 29th, the day of the catastrophe of the DANAThe following are some of the reasons why they began to be deployed in the province of Valencia at 15:41 hourshours before receiving official orders”, when they saw that “the situation was getting really difficult”.
“They say that the truth suffers, but does not perish”, proclaimed the general at the beginning of his intervention in a press conference. Marcos wanted to show a series of unpublished images with the date of the day of the tragedy “as a result of many information in which questioned the agility and rapidity of the of the Armed Forces, in this case of the Military Emergency Unit, and they even questioned my statements in which I said that the EMU had been there from the very first moment”.
The head of the UME wanted to “contrast” those information and statements “with the reality of some images that confirm what the Minister has told you on many occasions, and what I have told you on several occasions, words are superfluous,” he said.
Afterwards, Marcos presented a series of images “from two o’clock in the afternoon”. of the day of the deadly DANA. “Although we were previously aware that the situation was worsening, at two o’clock in the afternoon we learn that the Valencian Community decrees operational situation 1. We had already been alerted for hours. As soon as we see that the situation is getting really difficult, long before any elevation to another level, we went out,” he explained.
In this sense, Javier Marcos has detailed that the first vehicle of the UME left the Bétera base. “at 15.41 hours” and that it took almost two hours to reach Chiva. At this point, he showed some images recorded from one of these vehicles. at 18.05 on the A-3at the height of this Valencian town.
“They are vehicles of the UME that are what they are, that in the incorporation to Utiel-Requena, which is the destination they have, anticipating the official orders, risking livesWe were rescuing people who were trapped. These are real images,” described the head of the UME.
“At 18.05, the troops of the UME already had been rescuing people for hours“Marcos said during the broadcasting of these images, in which the highway can be seen, completely flooded. “They are testimonies of elements of the UME that recorded it on their own initiative,” he added.
Other images show completely damaged and submerged cars on the A-3 highway. “We drove by those cars checking that there was nobody there, or that if they were there, we could get them out, and we got them all out. Look at the magnitude of what was coming to the Valencian people. We were already more than prepared, with boats, to go to the people”, the general defended.
According to him, from Bétera, a total of 96 soldiers56 managed to reach the Utiel-Requena area, but the 40 that did not make it had to turn around and during the return trip they were rescuing people who had been trapped on the highway, as well as attending to warnings in Paiporta that they were receiving from the CECOPI.
Marcos went on to show some of the actions of members of the UME, “I am very pleased with the work of the UME”.anonymous heroes who do not deserve the information that is being spread”. The head of the Unit has defended that his troops “risked their lives“. “There are sectors of the population for whom we were late, and yes we were, look at how many, where and doing what,” Marcos said, pointing to the screen where the images of the rescues were shown.
Likewise, Marcos made it known which is the “real pulse” of the situation in Valencia this Saturday. “We maintain the 8,500 military” on the ground, has indicated the head of the UME, who has also reported that in this time there have been relays in the different units, so that in total 10,000 military have intervened in that emergency area.
To this must be added the 2,000 means that also continue to work in the affected area, from helicopters, special intervention vehicles and drones, among others.