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The former Valencian Emergencies minister has stated that President Carlos Mazon didn’t delay the sending out of an emergency flood text warning on October 29,
Salome Pradas appeared before a Catarroja judge on Friday as part of an investigation into the response from the regional government in the wake of the flooding that killed 228 people.
Along with Emilio Argüeso- former Valencian Emergencies Secretary- she blamed others for the text delay and the tardy October 29 response.
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Pradas, who was fired by Mazon for not responding to questions from her lawyer only, said that Mazon had no idea why her former boss did not respond when the flood alert was delayed. No officials were waiting on him.
The ex-minister was greeted outside the courthouse by chants of ‘murderers’ and ‘Mazon resign’.
Pradas confessed in a dramatic statement that she was not prepared to handle an emergency and did not have a mentor.
The Emergency Cecopi didn’t meet until 5pm, despite the fact that weather warnings were already in place and flooding had already hit Valencia province.
Pradas told the court she didn’t direct operations, and that the responsibility fell to Jose Miguel Basset who recently retired as the former chief inspector of the Valencia Province Fire Brigade Consortium.
She stated that many people were involved in the coordination of tasks, and this could have been the cause for the delay in the alert message.
In his testimony, Pradas blamed other groups or individuals for the slow response.
“Nobody warned us of the Poyo Ravine,” she said.
She criticised the Jucar water authority and Aemet state weather forecaster, as well as the Government delegate of Valencia, Pilar Bernardabe.
Pradas spoke to the court for 2 hours.
After a lunch break, Emilio Argüeso. He was the former Regional Secretary of Emergencies and, like Pradas, he invoked his rights to only accept 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’.
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Pilar Bernabe and Pradas, he said, were responsible for responding to the crisis.
He also blamed fire chief Jose Miguel Basset, for pulling fire crews out of the Poyo ravine – the epicentre – around 2pm on the 29th October.
Argüeso said he only found out about this through the media ‘several days later’.
“We believed that the firemen were watching all of the ravines,” said he.
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 said that he was unaware of the details about the flooding and that he had not been informed by the press office.
He stated that despite what was happening, no one suggested increasing the level of emergency at the Cecopi Meeting.
