The DANA hangover that put the community of Madrid on red alert for almost seven hours this Sunday -in the end the rainfall was less violent than expected although it intensified overnight- has flooded social networks in the last few hours and led to a new storm, now with political overtones.
The debate is now focused on assessing whether Civil Protection in Madrid went too far or not by sending messages to the citizens of that community, via telephone, asking them not to leave their homes. And if the Aemet alert – the one that led to this exceptional measure – is justified or not. Throughout the morning it was learned there are at least two dead in Toledo and two missing in Madrid. A 10-year-old boy was rescued after hours of searching perched on a tree and with hypothermia; one of the two disappeared is his father.
While throughout the morning the balance of damages was known, new statements fueled the controversy over the massive alert to mobile phones in the Community of Madrid. The cybernetic box of thunder, especially on Twitter, was opened by the Andalusian president, Juanma Moreno, who did not even wait for the DANA to finish to question the alert issued in the community of Madrid. The responses to that message did not wait.
This is what Moreno wrote on his Twitter account: “If a public body warns of ‘extreme danger’ you must be very sure” because that has “social and economic consequences.”
This message already has a response from Aemet: “We always work rigorously and with a high level of responsibility. Yesterday was a very difficult day for many people and for public services whose purpose is to safeguard lives and property. Prevention is essential for this purpose”, they write from that state meteorology agency in response to those attacks received on social networks.
The widespread telephone warning to the citizens of Madrid was activated at noon yesterday – at 2:00 p.m. this message was sent to the telephones with an audible alarm (it is the first time that this system has been used in the capital of Spain to alert of a storm) and the alarm was not raised until seven in the afternoon, when it was confirmed that DANA was no longer going to leave the predicted 120 liters per square meter in that community.
An average of 36 fell in the capital, although in towns such as Navalcarnero they exceeded 70 l/m2. The Madrid City Council came to cut tunnels in the city as a precaution, in addition to the recommendation to stay at home.
There were more official recommendations. On Saturday and Sunday morning, Madrid residents who were out of the city were asked to return early to avoid being on the road yesterday afternoon, when this big storm was expected.
This morning, the mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, joined these criticisms of the alerts launched from Aemet, who appeared on various occasions on Sunday to ask his neighbors to stay home, announce that museums were closing and inform of the suspension of events.
Now, in retrospect, Almeida shares with Moreno that this agency has to “refine” its predictions much better, since otherwise if these cases are repeated the institutions will lose “credibility” with citizens, reports Europa Press.
The mayor of Madrid has come out, with these statements, in defense of the messages launched by Juanma Moreno. “I fully agree with him”, Almeida made it clear this morning. And regarding the measures applied in that capital -also criticized on networks- the mayor maintains that the City Council “fulfilled its duty and responsibility” in light of the forecast released by the meteorological services.
The mayor has also faced criticism from the hotel sector, which accuses him of having caused millions in losses with his advice on Sunday by discouraging the people of Madrid from visiting these businesses. Almeida wondered what would have happened in that city if the City Council had not taken all the measures and the forecasts had been met.
The president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, has not allied, in this case, with her partner Almeida. When asked about the mayor’s criticism of Aemet, Ayuso has avoided a direct response, although she does acknowledge that raising the alert almost allowed the emergency services to work “only” to alleviate the effects of the storm.
This flood on social networks in full hangover from the last DANA have also joined this morning Más Madrid and PSOE. They accuse Almeida of “disloyalty” for his criticism. Eduardo Rubiño, councilor for Más Madrid, has called it very unfair to “throw down the professionals and scientists of Aemet who fulfilled their duty yesterday.”
The socialist spokesperson Reyes Maroto considers, for her part, the criticisms leveled at past water by Almeida as “regrettable”. “Thanks to these alert systems, in the city of Madrid there have been no victims. The mayor’s statements imply a lack of institutional loyalty towards the State Administration, which is who Aemet depends on”, she affirms.
The last to join this flood of reactions was, after noon, the acting Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska. And he has done so forcefully when asked what his opinion is of Almeida and Moreno’s criticism of Aemet: “Frivolities regarding Civil Protection and zero emergencies,” he said. “Especially,” he added, according to statements collected by EFE, “when there are currently two deaths and three missing as a result of this DANA.”
