The consequences of the DANA which devastated much of Valencia The tragedy on October 29th and the way in which the tragedy was handled that fateful day are still present. After the appearance this Friday of the president of the Generalitat, Carlos Mazónin which he assured that the information during that day was “insufficient, inaccurate and late”, this Saturday the State Meteorological Agency (Aemet) has responded to the president, assuring that the possibility of the Forata dam collapse was mentioned. already that day around 5.30 p.m. at the meeting held by the Integrated Operational Coordination Center (Cecopi).
That is, according to the Aemet, more than three hours before the Generalitat ended up sending the alert to the mobiles of the population warning of the risk of extreme rainfall and flooding, which finally occurred at 20.12 hours. As highlighted by members of the meteorological agency present at the meeting on the 29th, between 17 and 18 hours was talking about the worrying situation that was being experienced in the Poyo ravine and that the Forata dam would break.
The same has been pointed out by sources from the Ministry for Ecological Transition who were also present at the meeting, who emphasize that the danger faced The dam was discussed two hours before Mazón attended the meeting. The president of the Generalitat, however, said Friday in the Valencian Parliament that the “imminent” risk of dam failure was not known until later, which is why they sent the alert from 20 hours. Likewise, Mazón asserted that when he knew that the situation of the Forata dam was “fragile”, he went to the Cecopi meeting.
![photographer: Jose Gonzalez[[[PREVISIONES 20M]]]subject: SPECIAL DANA. Valencia. Mobility](https://imagenes.20minutos.es/uploads/imagenes/2024/11/14/42864-gpm2624-jpg.jpeg)
But the version of the members of the Aemet present at that meeting contrasts with that of Mazón. As they detail, the meeting started at 17:00 hours and already from the beginning of the meeting until 18:00 hours there was talk that the Forata dam could break and even options such as evacuating the affected municipalities were discussed and there was talk of using the Es-Alert system.
In spite of this, around 6 p.m. that meeting was interrupted and the telematics connection screens were turned off until 7 p.m., at which time they were turned back on and discussion resumed as to what message to send to the public.
Alerts to the population
After 7 p.m., with the certainty that a message had to be sent to a large part of the population warning of what could happen, the possibility of sending a special message to the Forata dam was considered. asking the neighbors to go up to the upper floors of the buildings. Likewise, the conversation was also about sending another different message for the rest of the population because the risk was not only coming from this dam and the hydrological alerts were in fact extended to a larger area.
Due to the slowness with which decisions were taken, and in view of the fact that the population was already beginning to feel the consequences of the DANA, these same sources specify that the president of the Jucar Hydrographic Confederation, Miguel Polo, called on the mayors of the most affected areas to alert them to the situation.
The Aemet, moreover, has pointed out that at no time said that the accumulated rainfall were going to be of a maximum of 180 liters per square metersomething that also held Mazón this Friday, but that rainfall was going to exceed that threshold. Therefore, from the Aemet moved that were especially dangerous places where it was not going to rain because by not seeing rainfall the population could be confident and the reality is that they could suffer the great floods of the rivers and floods, as in the end ended up happening.