A technician testified that former Councilor Salomé Pradas delayed a mass alert about the devastating October 29th storm in Valencia, which resulted in 228 deaths. The alert, sent via ES-Alert, was delayed for an hour after being initially decided upon.
The technician stated Pradas insisted on approving the message before it was sent. He also noted a lack of personnel monitoring the barrancos and the Forata dam, despite the imminent risk of collapse.
The delayed message reached phones at 8:11 PM, after numerous deaths and disappearances. Pradas reportedly admitted to not knowing about the ES-Alert system until late that day. The technician described a chaotic situation, highlighting communication issues during the emergency response.
Initially, there was an attempt to send a separate alert about the Forata dam's potential collapse, but this message was ultimately discarded. The technician stated that the order to prepare an alert for the whole province came from the Cecopi meeting, approximately at 5:00 PM. Emilio Argüeso, Pradas's number two, previously testified that the dam's collapse could have caused 20,000 deaths.
The timing of the alert's dispatch is crucial, with the message being sent an hour after its decision at the Cecopi meeting. While Pradas's supporters say the Cecopi, where she was the highest official, made the decision, the technician's testimony casts doubt on this, suggesting a delay was directly caused by her.
Furthermore, the Superior Court of Justice of the Valencian Community (TSJCV) is requesting information from the Generalitat regarding an earlier request to access Cecopi camera footage and call logs, highlighting the ongoing investigation surrounding the event.