Valencia's mayor, María José Catalá, told a court she had not been briefed about the ES-Alert emergency notification on the night a catastrophic DANA struck the region in 2024. Later reporting puts the death toll in the province of Valencia at 233, although some official and media accounts have used the figure 230. Her testimony, delivered in Catarroja, has intensified scrutiny of how regional and local authorities coordinated their response during one of the deadliest weather disasters in recent Spanish history.
Catalá said her first direct phone conversation with then-president of the Generalitat Valenciana, Carlos Mazón, took place at 2:30 a.m., hours after basic crisis decisions had already been made. The regional emergency coordination body, CECOPI, began meeting at approximately 17:00 on October 29, while the ES-Alert went to affected mobile phones at 20:11, when flooding was already widespread and life-threatening in many locations. Catalá said she had messaged Mazón at 23:13 to update him on severe flooding in Pinedo, a Valencia district. After receiving her message, Mazón referred her to Salomé Pradas, the then regional justice and interior minister, who is a basic figure in the investigation.
The mayor said no one from the Generalitat explained the ES-Alert system to her or told her that a message was being drafted. She said she received the alert only as a recipient, not as a participant in its creation or dissemination. Catalá also said no Generalitat officials contacted her about the scale of the disaster, pointing to a lack of direct communication between regional and municipal authorities during the critical hours. The alert advised people to avoid travel in Valencia province. Scrutiny has focused on whether it gave sufficiently specific instructions for rapidly rising water, including whether residents should move to upper floors or avoid garages and other low-lying areas.
On the city's involvement in CECOPI, Catalá acknowledged that Valencia City Council did not connect to the committee's videoconference during the night of the disaster, though council officials were contacted in the days following the floods. Official records from October 29, 2024, indicate that Valencia's fire department was summoned to take part in the crisis response but ultimately did not attend. The mayor recalled that municipal teams, including firefighters using boats from the local yacht club, had to intervene in the La Torre neighborhood, where nine people died in a garage as floodwaters rose rapidly.
The investigation, led by Judge Nuria Ruiz Tobarra at the Catarroja court, is examining the alert's timing and wording, as well as CECOPI's activation. Reporting has attributed to the judge the description of the ES-Alert as “late” and “erroneous.” The inquiry continues to examine whether earlier, clearer warnings could have reduced the loss of life. Catarroja Mayor Lorena Silvent has also told the judge that the alert was not useful in her town: she said the commercial area was already flooded and residents had sought refuge in the town hall by the time it arrived.
Catalá's testimony renewed attention to Mazón's role, but she stopped short of offering a full defense of the former president. During a parliamentary inquiry in June 2025, she had described Mazón as the only official to accept political responsibility for the tragedy; in court, she did not repeat that endorsement. Mazón, who resigned in November 2024, remains protected by parliamentary immunity as a regional deputy.
The political dispute over the response has sharpened through comparisons with the later DANA known as Adam. During that storm, the Generalitat issued several ES-Alert messages, including instructions to move to upper floors and limit movement, and ordered confinement in 142 municipalities. Government Delegate in the Valencian Community Pilar Bernabé said the anticipation and public warnings seen during the later storm had been lacking in 2024, while Generalitat Vice-President Susana Camarero said authorities had learned how to send alerts and respond. Opposition parties PSPV and Compromís argued that the later measures showed lives could have been saved in 2024.
The case has drawn comparisons with other recent disasters where the state response was questioned, such as the situation in Venezuela, where civil society stepped in after an earthquake exposed gaps in official action.
Spain's ES-Alert system, designed to provide rapid public warnings during emergencies, was implemented nationally in 2022. It can send alerts directly to mobile phones in a defined area, making a message's timing and wording basic to its effectiveness. The 2024 DANA in Valencia has become a test case for how emergency protocols function under extreme pressure. The ongoing judicial inquiry is expected to influence future procedures and clarify the responsibilities of regional and municipal leaders in crisis situations.
