Salomé Pradas confirmed in court she authored the Es Alert instructions during the 2024 floods. The alert reached phones after most missing persons had died. The judge is probing why the warning was delayed.
Salomé Pradas, former Justice and Interior Minister of the Generalitat Valenciana, has acknowledged before the judge in Catarroja that she wrote the handwritten instructions which formed the basis for the Es Alert mobile warning during the devastating floods of October 2024. This admission came as the court investigates why the mass alert, intended to warn residents of the disaster, was sent only after most of the missing had already lost their lives.
The document in question was drafted by Pradas during a crisis meeting of Cecopi, the emergency coordination body, on 29 October 2024. According to the investigation, Pradas specified in her notes which areas should receive the Es Alert notification and called for the activation of the Unidad Militar de Emergencias (UME). The alert eventually reached mobile phones at 20:11, by which time the majority of those reported missing were already dead.
Jorge Suárez, the subdirector general of Emergencies, testified as a witness that he took the handwritten instructions from the Cecopi meeting at 19:45 to arrange the alert's distribution. The judge, Nuria Ruiz Tobarra, is now focusing on why the warning was not sent earlier, despite emergency calls flooding the 112 hotline from 16:50 onwards. These calls reported the overflow of the Barranco del Poyo, which caused catastrophic flooding in towns such as Paiporta and Catarroja, resulting in 55 and 25 deaths respectively.
Pradas appeared in court accompanied by her lawyer, Eduardo de Urbano, a former magistrate of the Madrid Provincial Court. After Pradas confirmed she authored the document, her defense requested the cancellation of a handwriting analysis previously ordered by the judge. Sources close to Pradas argue that the notes were already finalized and authorized by Cecopi by 19:45, including both Es Alert texts and the request for UME deployment across the province.
The 2024 floods in the Valencia region were among the deadliest in recent Spanish history, exposing gaps in emergency response and communication. The Es Alert system, designed to provide rapid warnings to the public, was implemented nationally in 2022 but had not faced a disaster of this scale before. The ongoing judicial inquiry is expected to clarify whether procedural delays or technical issues contributed to the late warning, and whether changes to emergency protocols will follow as a result of the tragedy.
