“My indignation is greater because, in addition to being harmed, I know what should have been done and has not been done.” The commissioner of the Local Police of Xàtiva and former member of the coordination committee of the local police of the Valencian Community Antonio Justo expresses himself in these terms regarding what he considers poor management of the DANA catastrophe due to the manifest non-compliance with Law 13 /2010, of November 23, of Civil Protection and Emergency Management, as well as the Special Flood Risk Plan.
Both documents establish several points whose compliance would be called into question based on the information known so far about the management of the catastrophe by the Emergency Coordination Center that depends on the Department of Justice.
Justo, a resident of Algemesí, whose home is one of those affected by the torrential rains, points mainly to the lack of creation in a timely manner of the five basic units provided for in the Flood Risk Plan, specifically, the Intervention Units, Security, Health, Shelter and Assistance and Support. Each basic unit has a head who is part of the advisory committee that monitors the emergency once the Integrated Operational Coordination Center (Cecopi) is established: “On Monday the 28th we already had information about what was coming and on Tuesday the 29th, at At 7:30 a.m., Aemet already raised the warning to red level due to torrential rains that began to intensify. The Cecopi had to be convened at 8:00 a.m. (it was created at 5:00 p.m.), the basic units had to be created. With the information they had, it is not normal that circulation was not cut off or that people were not prevented from going to schools and work centers.”
The commissioner gives two situations as an example of non-compliance with both documents. Firstly, “the forest firefighters, who are an emergency unit that depends on the Generalitat, with 400 troops and 40 bilge pumps, had a normal day, like any other day.” Secondly, “the local police officers who were attending their training at the Valencian Institute of Public Security and Emergencies (Ivaspe), in response to Aemet’s notice and being experts, requested the suspension of classes and were denied: they had to attend both in the morning and in the afternoon with the risk that entailed.”
According to articles 59 and 60 of the Civil Protection Law, “the department responsible for civil protection and emergency management may entrust the ordinary and extraordinary management of the Emergency Brigade Unit to the prevention, fire extinguishing and rescue (SPEIS) of a provincial nature, which will have specialized personnel” and among its functions will be “intervention in emergency situations of meteorological origin such as snowfall, floods, strong winds, and other adverse meteorological phenomena.”
The Special Flood Risk Plan makes it crystal clear, among other things, that the Emergency Coordination Center, in terms of monitoring levels in channels, must keep the municipalities of affected basins informed, although they can also adopt their own prevention measures through municipal bands. As elDiario.es has reported, several town councils such as Aldaia, Sedaví, Paiporta or Algemesí did not receive this information from the Generalitat’s Emergencies.
In this regard, Emergency sources assure, in response to questions from elDiario.es, that “the Special Flood Plan is fully deployed from the first moment, and with the basic units made up of the operational personnel that make up each of the different areas: from firefighters, police, health or social welfare. All personnel participating in the emergency are integrated into the corresponding basic unit.” However, Justo explains, the forest firefighters were not required. Furthermore, as this media has confirmed, there were town councils that were not notified.
Regarding the Civil Protection Law, article 4 establishes that citizens have the right to “be informed about the serious collective risks that may affect them and about the actions planned to address them”, as well as to “receive information and instructions on the security measures to adopt and the conduct to follow.” The only alert that reached the population directly was the one they received on their cell phone at 8:12 p.m., when thousands of people were already trapped.
According to article 12, “it is up to the head minister of the department responsible for civil protection and emergency management,” that is, the Department of Justice, Salomé Pradas, “to exercise sole command of the emergency” to determine, among other things, , “the most convenient protection measures for people, property, the environment and for the personnel of the intervention services” as well as “the decision to establish the Integrated Operational Coordination Center (Cecopi), when the evolution of the emergency situation so advises.”
As for the Emergency Coordination Center, “it will serve to ensure the essential coordination of the various administrations and entities that must act in each urgent and emergency situation, guaranteeing an agile and effective response to citizens’ demands for help.” All of this, “respecting the competence that corresponds to each organization in the material execution of the requested service and in the organization, mobilization and management of the resources that are considered appropriate for the specific action.”
The functions to be carried out by the Emergency Coordination Center are, among others, “communicate and notify the different pre-emergency or declared emergency situations; coordinate the actions of the essential or complementary services involved in the resolution of an emergency or catastrophe situation; inform the essential and complementary intervention services involved in its resolution of the evolution of the emergency; assume dialogue and coordination in matters of emergency management with local administrations, the State administration and other autonomous communities; implement, at the decision of the director of the plan, call centers to inform the population and those affected about the emergency situation.”
Source: www.eldiario.es
