Timing of Spain’s flood alert under scrutiny as blame rages

As Spain grapples with the fallout from the torrential floods that hit on Tuesday, the blame game has already begun, with disaster relief services accused of being slow to respond.

Much of the country has been hit hard by heavy rain and hailstorms that have triggered flash floods in many areas that have already claimed at least 72 lives.

But the Civil Protection Agency, which is deployed during natural disasters, only issued a warning at 20.15 local time on Tuesday, when the flood had already caused major 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 cities,” read a headline on the website of El Mundo newspaper.

As the newspaper goes on to point out, “hundreds of people were trapped overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday in industrial areas and on roads because roads were already blocked off and access was cut off.”

Accusations 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 responsible.”

Another social media user, named as Santo March, said the National Meteorological Agency “can’t predict this, but they can predict the weather in 20-30 years”.

At the same time, cost savings emerge as another potential culprit.

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

UVE was created by the former leftist government to respond to weather-related emergencies such as floods or wildfires. When Mr Mazón took office last year, he immediately got rid of it, and his People’s Party (PP) described the agency as “a shady outfit”.

In a statement, the Intersindical union attacked the decision, saying that “by prioritizing short-term interests, they are contributing to environmental decay and exacerbating the effects of extreme weather events”.

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

Valencia’s regional government has responded by saying UVE was “just another fictitious organization with no firefighters, no materials and zero efficiency”.

However, others have pointed to the Valencia manager’s appearance to the media on Tuesday, when he said the heavy rainfall was expected to “reduce its intensity” from around 10am. 18.00 local time.

Instead, it began wreaking havoc in large parts of the region.

Politicians in some of the affected cities have been particularly vocal. Andreu Salom, mayor of L’Alcúldia, said he felt “abandoned and absolutely impotent”.

“As mayor, no one informed me of the danger of the Magre River breaking its banks,” he said. “It has filled the city with water, mud and garbage.”

Mr. Mazón has insisted that the 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 been talking about an absolutely unprecedented situation,” he said, citing the “sudden nature of meteorology”.

Meanwhile, activists have called for faster and sharper action to halt climate change, which they say caused the floods.

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 warnings issued by the National Meteorological Agency should have been enough to keep people indoors and out of danger, but that “people want to live a normal life even when there is a red alert”.