Right now, on Friday afternoon, the TV is warning people not to use the roads in Huelva, Cádiz and Seville because of the fierce rains there. It also warns of looting. Over in Mallorca, too, there are reports of major flooding.
Previously, as we know, the terrible storms had assailed Valencia last Tuesday, with a reported 205 dead (so far). Sad to say, the warnings had arrived late and the regional government carries the blame. The Guardian quoting a local resident of Paiporta where 62 died: 'it was a trap'. 'Timely advice would have doubtlessly saved many lives' says a climatologist. 'I got a warning on my mobile-phone while I was seated in my car, with the water already up to my neck' says a motorist.
The AEMAT official weather agency had previously given the warnings, but the President of the Valencian region Carlos Mazón had failed to issue the appropriate order - leading understandably to security issues and political fallout. Pedro Sánchez has sent help from Madrid and has ordered three days of mourning. The leader of the Partido Popular Alberto Núñez Feijóo is critical (for political ends) but as elDiario.es says - criticising the labour of the AEMAT is not in the best interest of society, especially with the experience of this past storm, said to be the most lethal since a flood back in Barcelona in 1962.
“Criticizing AEMET and the meteorologists after a major tragedy is not only very clumsy, it denotes a worrying lack of knowledge when the criticism comes from people whose role is precisely the management of risky meteorological situations”, says an official.
There's criticism too towards the larger companies operating in Valencia for not sending their staff home and closing operations for the day. The message being - making money is more important than saving people's lives.
Meanwhile, on Thursday it was reported that only two of the 28 regional fire-fighting services had been called to help in life-saving labours.
Besides the looting, there were the inevitable bulos - fake information on social media maliciously designed to create extra panic, such as the dams upriver were bursting and so on.
The appalling ultra-group Manos Limpias (yes, them!) did their bit - by denouncing the weather forecasters at the AEMAT for - and let's be frank here - doing their job.
Oddly, the recently elected PP/Vox alliance for the Valencian region had disbanded the autonomous emergency service installed by the previous government.
Vox insists that Global Warming is a chimera.
A protest in Valencia has been called for November 9 for Mazón's resignation.
A talking-head on LaSexta TV says - we are the only animal that merrily marches forward towards its own extinction.
Odd, that.
The cartoon says 'The DANA?', 'No, the mud'. Feijóo says 'the fault lays with the weather forecasters'.
