The official Inmaculada Piles, head of service at the Emergency Coordination Center, has revealed before the Dana judge that the person in charge of Civil Protection of the Government Delegation asked her at 6:35 p.m. to send the Es-Alert, according to legal sources consulted by elDiario.es. However, the automatic message to mobile phones was sent at 8:11 p.m., more than an hour and a half after the head of Civil Protection requested it.
This is the highest-ranking technician at the Emergency Center who testifies as a witness before the investigating judge. In addition, Piles participated electronically in the meeting of the Integrated Operational Coordination Center (Cecopi). The witness explained that, during the Cecopi disconnections, some participants spoke “in parallel” with each other.
Patricia G., head of Civil Protection of the Government Delegation in Valencia, also connected to Cecopi, told the witness that it was “necessary” to send the Es-Alert. And Piles wrote a WhatsApp message to Jorge Suárez, deputy director general of Emergencies, proposing the sending of Es-Alert. Suárez, according to the witness, answered: “Yes, we are managing it.”
Piles has detailed that the first phase of Cecopi, after the warning from Miguel Polo, president of the Júcar Hydrographic Confederation, “focuses its attention” on the “worrying situation” of the Forata dam. At the meeting, moving to scenario 3 of the Forata Dam Emergency Plan, of possible failure, was not ruled out.
After considering the adoption of measures within Cecopi, such as a possible evacuation, the meeting is paused for the participants in the telematic modality, including the witness herself.
Inmaculada Piles has also confirmed that the Government delegate, Pilar Bernabé, reported after the first recess about the situation in Paiporta that the town’s mayor had transmitted to her. At that time, according to the notes that Piles took from the meeting, evacuation had already been ruled out and confinement was being considered.
The witness confirmed that some mayors “were calling and talking about cars with people inside.” Piles has assured that, from then on, he began to attend to and manage requests for “blankets, sandwiches, buses, health centers, hospitals…”.
The official has also revealed that the head of the Risk Analysis Unit, Juan Ramón Cuevas, sent an email with the “proposal” for writing the Es-Alert message.
Argüeso’s requests for the Presidency
Imaculada Piles has also confirmed that the former regional secretary Emilio Argüeso, investigated in the case, asked her for information on the morning of the day at the request of the Presidency of the Generalitat about roads in an area that was already on alert.
The petition reveals that Carlos Mazón’s team at the Palau de la Generalitat was somewhat aware that the situation on the ground could even be dangerous. Piles has broken down the WhatsApp communications he had with Argüeso both on the eve of the dana and on October 29. The witness explained that she, with the advice of the head of the Risk Analysis Unit, activated the hydrological alerts and requested the deployment of forest firefighters to monitor the flow of the Poyo ravine.
At 12:05, the then regional secretary of Emergencies wrote to the head of service: “Inma please, I need you to tell me to get to Xàtiva from Valencia how to go so that it is not cut off.” Next, the person under investigation specifies that the information “is for the Presidency.”
At that time, Emergencies had already decreed a hydrological alert on the Magro River. Inmaculada Piles took a while to answer: at 12:19, she told the senior official: “On the A7 there is already an open lane. Better there than on the secondary roads.”
To get to the town, you inevitably have to cross the Ribera Alta region, which since 7:45 that morning was at level 1 of emergencies, precisely with Emilio Argüeso in charge as regional secretary of Emergencies.
The hydrological alert in the Poyo ravine was activated by Emergencies at 12:20. A minute later, the tall witness responded: “There is 3 km of retention.” And Argüeso intervened, presumably in reference to the Presidency: “I’m telling you.”
Piles has authorized the incorporation of his communications with Argüeso into the procedure, which already appeared in an expert report voluntarily submitted by the person under investigation.
Source: www.eldiario.es
