The State Meteorological Agency (Aemet) – which depends on the Ministry for Ecological Transition – has informed the emergency room of the Generalitat Valenciana of the risk of flooding due to the dana which on 29 October 2024 caused 229 deaths in Valencia. EL PAÍS had access to telephone calls between representatives of the two organizations. The audios were incorporated into the investigation of the judge of Catarroja (Valencia), who is criminally investigating the flood, Nuria Ruiz Tobarra.
On October 29, an employee of the Generalitat’s emergency coordination center calls a worker from Aemet. He tells him that the Local Operational Coordination Center (Cecopal) has been established in Valencia and asks him what the evolution will be for the afternoon and the next few days, after the red and yellow alert has been decreed for the coast.
The Aemet worker excludes rain in the city of Valencia and predicts that the storm will move around 2pm. to locations in the interior of municipalities such as Náquera or Serra. “In the afternoon (the cold drop) heads inland, towards Ademuz. So, if we move forward in time, for tomorrow, everything remains inland. For Valencia, the capital (…) the greatest accumulations or intensity are not expected,” warns the head of the state agency. “The next few days – Wednesday – he will go to the north, Castellón, Rincón de Ademuz,” he adds. “The remains of this afternoon would remain in the early hours,” he clarifies.
When the head of the regional emergency room puts on the table that the rains can leave accumulations of 90 liters an hour, the Aemet employee also warns of the risk of rivers flooding. “The intensities tend to move further and further inland. And towards the north, but the accumulations predicted for the northern interior are surprising. The models show us accumulations in the northern interior at twelve hours that remain throughout the morning of Wednesday, which is impressive. In river basins and others, it accumulates and can reach the coast as a flood. Flooding is another thing. I no longer know the consequences,” says the representative of the state agency.
The appeal debunks the information blackout theory. An idea that the interim president of the Generalitat, Carlos Mazón, has been holding onto for a year, and which has been dismantled by the judge in dozens of orders. The thesis – vehemently defended by the People’s Party, by the two suspects and by the PP – maintained that if the Valencian executive did not react better and more quickly to the tragedy of October 29, 2024, it is because organizations of Pedro Sánchez’s government, such as the Hydrographic Confederation of Júcar (CHJ) or the Aemet, did not inform in advance of the size of the waterspout. The judge gave credibility to the declarations of the top representatives of these institutions, who during their appearance as witnesses declared that they had reported the risk days in advance. And on the same day they reported its severity. Aemet, for example, declared a red alert for heavy rain, the maximum on the scale, at 7.36am on the 29th.
