New round of declarations in the commission of inquiry into DNA at the Congress of Deputies. The vice-president of the Generalitat, Susana Camarero, and the president of the Provincial Council of Valencia, Vicente Mompó, (both from the PP), illustrate this Monday how the regional government managed the flood emergency which devastated several Valencian localities on 29 October and where at least 229 people died.
Camarero, spokesperson of the Consell, head of Social Services and number two of the president Carlos Mazón was present electronically between 5:02 p.m. and 5.40pm at the Cecopi (Integrated Operational Coordination Centre) meeting, from where it was decided to send the mass alert on mobile phones at 8.11pm, when at least 155 people had already died and for 37 others the situation was insurmountable, according to an investigation by this newspaper. Likewise, Camarero was responsible for the public teleassistance service, assistance that 37 users did not receive during the floods and drowned.
Mompó was also present at Cecopi, although he was not a member and his presence was not mandatory. When he arrived, as he declared before Judge Catarroja who is investigating the Dana case, he told the rest of those present how from the first hour the families were saved from the other bank of the Magro river. He also explained that in that period they were giving him more information through dozens of calls and alerts on the mayors’ cell phones.
The president of the Provincial Council was one of the people who spoke on the phone with Mazón, while he was closed in the El Ventorro restaurant (and from which he did not emerge at least before 6.45 pm). The first phone call was at 5.50 pm, in which Mazón asked for the contact details of the mayor of Utiel, which was flooded at the time.
Mompó assured journalists that he had alerted the president of the seriousness of the situation: “I called him to tell him a little about what was happening and that measures needed to be taken.” At least Mazón and the president of the provincial council will speak once again, at 6.19 pm. Mompó had at least three phone calls with former councilor Salomé Pradas, accused in the Catarroja case, and was with her in Cecopi.
