On Thursday, new details emerged in the Catarroja court regarding the tragedy that unfolded in the province of Valencia during the devastating flood. Deputy head of emergency services Jorge Suárez testified that as early as the evening, he insisted on immediately issuing a mass warning to residents about a potential breach of the Forata dam. According to him, he proposed sending an urgent alert through the ES-Alert system between 5:15 p.m. and 5:38 p.m., as the situation in the region grew increasingly dangerous.
However, Suárez claims his proposal was not supported by the leadership. The discussion included former head of the Department of Justice and Home Affairs, Salomé Pradas, and the head of the provincial fire service, José Miguel Basset. Basset expressed concern that an early warning might trigger panic among the population. At that point, Pradas interrupted the discussion and video link with members of the coordination center to consider possible courses of action. This occurred at 6:05 p.m.
Preparing the message
Suárez noted that from the very beginning, he insisted the message to residents should recommend immediately moving to higher ground and closely monitoring alerts on their mobile phones. According to his recollections, this idea came up at around 5:45 p.m. While management was discussing the situation, he instructed his subordinates to prepare the text for distribution. According to him, the document’s metadata recorded the creation time as 6:15 p.m. By 6:38 p.m., the finalized text had been sent to the operations center.
According to the official, subsequent actions progressed slowly. Operators began uploading the message to the ES-Alert platform, and by 7:07 p.m., it was ready to be sent out. Despite this, the mass notification across the entire province of Valencia was only dispatched at 8:11 p.m.—almost an hour after it had been uploaded to the platform.
Criticism and consequences
Judge Nuria Ruiz, who is leading the investigation, believes the alert was sent too late and contained errors. Specifically, the message did not directly instruct residents to move to upper floors or higher ground—instead, it merely advised them not to leave their homes or travel. As a result, in the Ribera area, where the Magro river flows downstream from the Forrat dam, eleven people died in the evening and overnight.
During the hearing, Suárez emphasized that his proposal for immediate notification could have saved lives if it had been implemented in time. He also noted that the delay in making the decision and sending the alert was one of the causes of the tragedy. The court continues to investigate who is ultimately responsible for the delay and for insufficient public awareness at the critical moment.
Reaction and discussion
A debate has erupted in society and among experts over how emergency alert systems should function in such situations. Many are asking why, despite having the technical capability and a prepared message, the warning was sent with such a delay. Some participants believe that fear of causing panic should not have outweighed the urgent need to warn people about a real threat.
Other details have also emerged: according to Suárez, the discussion at the coordination center that evening was tense and decisions were made slowly. As a result, by the time the message finally reached residents, many were already in the danger zone. The investigation continues to analyze the actions of everyone involved to determine whether so many lives could have been saved.
Notably, Jorge Suárez serves as the Deputy Director General for Emergency Situations in the Comunidad Valenciana. He oversees the coordination of disaster response efforts and the implementation of modern public alert systems. The ES-Alert system in question is designed to quickly inform citizens of emergencies via mobile phones. In recent years, its effectiveness and response speed have become topics of discussion following a series of incidents similar to the one described.
