Rocío Cortés, former mayor of Requena, a town flooded by the October 29 flood in which there were no victims, has declared in court that “in Requena there were no deaths or injuries because the population was warned.”
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Cortés, from the Popular Party, held the position on the day the DANA caused 230 fatalities in Valencia and today has appeared as a witness in the Catarroja court investigating possible criminal responsibilities of those who managed the emergency. The first thing she explained is that she took the “precaution” of saving screenshots of her iPhone messages from that tragic day.
The former mayor recounted that, already at midnight the previous day, the councilor of education was worried about the rains. “We decided around 6:00 in the morning to contact again,” she said, but “around 4:40 in the morning it was already raining heavily and she warned us via WhatsApp.” At that moment they considered suspending classes and at 6:53 in the morning they contacted education inspectors to communicate their intention to do so.
Already at midnight the previous day, the councilor of education was worried about the rains, she declared
She recalled that Emergencies had issued orange and yellow alerts. By 7:20 classes were already suspended, and the mayor of Utiel confirmed to her that he was also suspending them. At 7:52 they issued a statement to the public announcing the suspension and giving recommendations to the population.
At 8 o’clock they went to see the ravine of the Magro river, “which is what normally floods.” It was already flowing with “quite a lot of water, when normally it carries none.” At 11 they checked the rise of the ravine again. They tried to build a dam in the ravine with machinery, but the water rose to the point that the machinery had to be removed. The first roundabout at the entrance to Requena, the one that allows access to the hospital, was already closed due to water. The then mayor went to the town hall to set up a CECOPAL around 1 p.m.
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At that first CECOPAL, the councilors and the police chief met, and the Civil Guard by phone and the hospital manager. The Civil Guard told us that the situation was worsening quickly. We were concerned about access to the hospital. The former mayor stated that “in Requena there were no deaths or injuries because the population was warned.” At the hospital they told them there were no problems inside, but many people stayed there because they could not return to their homes.
“In the afternoon the situation was worse,” she declared. The Civil Guard was already recommending calling the UME and at 3:17 p.m. the mayor spoke with the investigated former councilor Salomé Pradas. “I told her that we had requested the UME and that we had no resources,” she recounted. She also spoke with Jorge Suárez, deputy director of Emergencies, and asked if the emergency level had been raised to level 2. Suárez replied yes and told her that the UME was on its way. The Town Hall informed the public at 4:08 p.m. that the UME was on its way. By 3:30 p.m. they had already set up the theater as a shelter.
“I had the feeling all day that we were ahead of everything,” she explained
“I had the feeling all day that we were ahead of everything,” she explained, although “we did not imagine the magnitude of all the people who would come later.” Until 7:47 p.m. the situation was very worrying, Cortés added, and many people were arriving at the theater. “I spoke with Utiel and we already suspected that people had died,” she said. “People were coming from everywhere. There was no internet or phone so we had to go to the Advanced Command Post,” she said.
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