THE former Valencian Emergencies Minister has said that president Carlos Mazon did not delay the sending of an emergency text flood warning on October 29.
Salome Pradas testified before a judge in Catarroja on Friday in a probe looking into the response by the regional government to the floods that claimed 228 lives.
Along with Emilio Argüeso- former Valencian Emergencies Secretary- she blamed others for the text delay and the tardy October 29 response.
SALOME PRADAS(GVA image)
Answering questions only from her lawyer, Pradas- who was sacked by Mazon- said that her former boss played no part in holding up the flood alert with no officials waiting for any indication from him.
The ex-minister was greeted outside the courthouse by chants of ‘murderers’ and ‘Mazon resign’.
In some dramatic testimony, Pradas admitted she had no experience of handling emergencies and had no advisor.
The emergency Cecopi did not meet until 5pm on October 29 despite weather warnings and floods already hitting Valencia province.
Pradas said she did not direct operations and told the court that responsibilities were down to the ex-chief inspector of the Valencia Province Fire Brigade Consortium, Jose Miguel Basset, who has recently retired.
She said that there many people who were involved in coordination tasks and that might have been the reason in delaying the alert message or a lack of care in other preventative measures.
Pradas’ testimony blamed the slow response on other groups or individuals.
“Nobody warned us about the Poyo ravine,” she stated.
She heaped criticism on the Jucar water authority, state weather forecaster Aemet, and the Government delegate for Valencia, Pilar Bernabe.
Pradas addressed the court for two hours.
After a lunch break, Emilio Argüeso. who was the former regional secretary of Emergencies took to the stand, and like Pradas also invoked his right to only take questions from his lawyer.
Argüeso was also dismissed by Carlos Mazon and defended him stating ‘that he was summoned to the Cecopi centre and did not have to go’.
EMILIO ARGUESO(Wikipedia image)
He said the response to the crisis was down to Pradas and the Government delegate, Pilar Bernabe.
He also heaped blame on fire chief Jose Miguel Basset for withdrawing fire crews from the Poyo ravine- the epicentre of the disaster- at around 2pm on October 29.
Argüeso said he only found out about this through the media ‘several days later’.
“We thought that the firefighters were watching all the ravines,” he stated.
Argüeso did say he was told about a risk of a rupture of the Forata dam which could have resulted in over 20,000 deaths.
He downplayed the number of 112 emergency calls that day and said that nobody from the press office passed on details to him about the flood reports.
He said at no time during the Cecopi meeting did anybody suggest increasing the emergency status to the highest level, in spite of what was going on.
