The investigation continues in Valencia into one of the most devastating tragedies in recent years—the flood that claimed 229 lives last autumn. A judge in Catarroja has decided to focus on the operation of the ES Alert emergency warning system, which was supposed to notify residents about the impending danger.
Of particular interest is the timing of the alert: the warning signal was sent to mobile phones only at 20:11, by which point numerous casualties had already been reported and people were trapped in flooded buildings. The court has requested technical documentation from the regional emergency agency regarding the system’s operation, as well as the text of all alerts sent within the region prior to the disaster.
In addition, the judge has contacted two government bodies—the Júcar River Hydrographic Confederation and the national meteorological service. They have been asked to provide detailed information about weather conditions and rainfall levels in the Poyo ravine area, where the water breach occurred, resulting in fatalities in the municipality of Catarroja and other settlements.
The court is interested in whether this information was available to emergency services and whether it could have been used for a timely response. Questions also concern how information was exchanged between central and regional authorities. Representatives of the Valencia government insist that they were not warned in advance, which they believe was one of the reasons for the delayed response to the natural disaster.
In the near future, the court intends to thoroughly analyze all stages of information transmission and determine whether such severe consequences could have been avoided. The outcome of this inquiry may prove decisive for the future organization of warning systems and the coordination between different levels of government in Spain.
