Timing of Spain flood alert under scrutiny as blame game rages

As Spain grapples with the fallout from the flash floods which struck on Tuesday, the blame game has already begun, with disaster relief services accused of being slow to react.

Much of the country has been badly hit by heavy rain and hailstorms, triggering rapid flooding in many areas which has already claimed at least 72 lives.

But the civil protection agency, which is deployed during natural disasters, did not issue an alert until 20:15 local time on Tuesday, when the flooding had already caused a great deal of damage.

"The magnitude of the tragedy raises doubts about whether the population was warned too late: Civil Protection sent out alerts when there were already flooded towns," read a headline on the website of El Mundo newspaper.

As the paper goes on to point out, "hundreds of people were trapped throughout the night from Tuesday to Wednesday in industrial estates and on roads because the roads were already cut off and access was cut off."

Recriminations have been flying on social media as people ask why local governments and politicians were not better prepared.

“The handling of what has happened in Valencia has been negligent and irresponsible,” wrote Isabel Díaz, a lawyer. “People have died because of the incompetence of those in charge.”

Another social media user, named as Santo March, said that the national meteorological agency “can’t predict this, but they can predict the weather in 20-30 years”.

At the same time, cost-cutting is emerging as another potential culprit.

The regional president of Valencia, the conservative Carlos Mazón, has been forced to defend his decision to eliminate the Valencia Emergency Unit (UVE) on the grounds that it was inefficient.

The UVE was created by the previous, left-wing government, in order to respond to weather-related emergencies such as flooding or wildfires. On taking office last year, Mr Mazón immediately got rid of it, with his People’s Party (PP) describing the agency as “a shady outfit”.

In a statement, the trade union Intersindical attacked the decision, saying that “by prioritising short-term interests, they contribute to environmental decay and aggravate the effects of extreme weather phenomena”.

The Catalan nationalist politician Gabriel Rufián also criticised the elimination of UVE, saying that Mr Mazón had been “proud” of dismantling the agency.

The Valencia regional government has responded by saying that UVE “was just another fictitious organisation, with zero firefighters, zero materials and zero efficiency”.

However, others have pointed to the Valencia leader’s appearance before the media on Tuesday, when he said that the heavy rainfall was expected to “reduce its intensity” from around 18:00 local time.

Instead of that, it began to wreak havoc across much of the region.

Politicians in some of the towns affected have been particularly vocal. Andreu Salom, mayor of L’Alcúldia, said he felt “abandonment and absolute impotence”.

“As mayor, nobody informed me of the danger that the Magre river might break its banks,” he said. “It has filled the town with water, mud and debris.”

Mr Mazón has insisted that emergency services were on alert from Monday onwards and that the extraordinary nature of the weather event made it difficult to know exactly what to advise Valencians.

“Experts have talked about an absolutely unprecedented situation,” he said, citing the “abrupt nature of meteorology”.

Meanwhile, activists have called for swifter and more strident action to halt the climate change which they say caused the flooding.

Eva Saldaña, executive director of Greenpeace Spain, said that “the climate emergency is not an abstract concept, but a reality which affects our lives and which, in this case, takes lives”.

Jorge Olcina, a climate scientist from the University of Alicante and co-author of a recent report on climate change in Spain, told Cadena Ser radio that the recent floods were “Mediterranean evidence of climate change” which, he explained, “is changing the way it rains”.

He also said that warnings issued by the national meteorological agency should have been enough to keep people indoors and away from danger, but that “people want to lead a normal life even when there’s a red alert”.