At 7:00 p.m. on October 29, Dana Day, with the entire Cecopi (Integrated Operational Coordination Center) gathered and focused on the possible rupture of the Forata dam, Jorge Suárez, deputy emergency deputy director of the Generalitat Valenciana – a functional appointed during the Ximo Puig mandate -, proposes for the first time in the entire day to use a complementary warning system to which they had been used to which they had been used to which they were used to Tomorrow, which until then consisted only of direct communications to the municipalities.
This time it was an unpublished mechanism: Es-Alert, a system that sends messages directly to mobiles in emergencies affected. The alert would finally resonate on the devices throughout the province of Valencia at 8:11 p.m. What follows is a meticulous reconstruction of those critics 71 minutes elapsed since the sending of the ES-Alert until reception in mobile terminals is initially proposed.
The information comes from various sources: the judicial statements of Pilar BernabéGovernment delegate in the Valencian Community; Salome Pradasthen emergency department; Emilio ArgüesoRegional secretary; as well as the appearance of José Miguel BassetTechnical Chief of the Emergency, before the Investigative Commission of the Diputación de Valencia, and the direct testimony of Vicent MompóPresident of this institution.
In the Cecopi, at 7:00 p.m. on that fateful October 29, Salomé Pradas were physically present; Emilio Argüeso; Vicent Mompó; Jorge Suárez; José Miguel Basset, Chief Inspector of the Provincial Firefighters Consortium and Chief Technical Manager of the Emergency; and two representatives of the Military Emergency Unit (UME), sent by the Government of Spain. Pilar Bernabé participated through telematic connection; Miguel Polo, president of the Júcar Hydrographic Confederation (CHJ); and the head of the State Meteorology Agency (Aemet) in the Valencian Community.
Just five minutes after the meeting started, after Jorge Suárez’s proposal, an intense debate about the suitability of sending the alert begins. The two highest rank technicians maintain diametrically opposite positions: Suarez firmly defends the sending of ES-Alert, even being aware that it would be their historical premiere in the Valencian Community. For its part, Basset opposes frontally arguing that it could trigger a counterproductive social alarm. Both agree, however, that, if sent, it should be limited exclusively to the area of influence of the Forata dam, not to the entire province.
At 7:10 p.m., Pilar Bernabé – according to his version, subsequently questioned by Salomé Pradas – communicates that the mayor of Paipporta, Maribel Albalat, has informed her floods in her municipality. Surprisingly, despite this warning, no Aemet representative, CHJ or the 112 service mentions the Poyo ravine or its possible relationship with these events. In this context, Vicent Mompó suggests preventively exventing shipping to the entire province, providing possible displacements from other points.
The focus, however, was still exclusively the potential breakage of the Forata dam and its consequences for the municipalities of La Ribera, a geographically opposite area of the Poyo ravine. Time continues its relentless progress. After 30 minutes of sterile discussions about the relevance of the message, its content and even the language in which it should be written, at 7:30 p.m. Vicent Mompó interrupts abruptly: “But you can send the alert of a fucking one time!”
Salome Pradas immediately supports this position, achieving the unanimous consensus of the Cecopi. Jorge Suárez then leaves the Chamber to coordinate with the two technicians responsible for writing and configuring the shipping platform, who will soon be declared before the instructor judge. At 7:50 p.m., Suarez returns with an additional complication: the validation of a civil protection official is required.
Emilio Argüeso intervenes visibly counter, questioning how it is possible that they would not have planned this requirement to expedite the process. Just ten minutes later, at 8:00 p.m., the Secretary of State of Environment urgently contacts Salome Pradas to communicate that the dam could collapse imminently, and not at 9:00 p.m. as initially estimated. Pradas vehemently insists on accelerating the procedure to the maximum so that the notice arrives before the possible collapse.
The tension reaches extreme levels while the entire Cecopi claims the immediate sending of the message. Finally, at 8:11 p.m., the ES-Alert alert reaches mobile devices, 50 minutes before the hypothetical collapse of the Foraata dam-exclusive value of the shipment-which would never occur.
Meanwhile, Miguel Polo, president of the Júcar Hydrographic Confederation, present in the communications of the Cecopi and actively intervening on Forama, had already been keeping an inexplicable silence about the overflow of the ravine of the Poyo, which would end up being charged more than 200 lives without the body responsible for its surveillance paying the least attention.
