The Zaragoza City Council and the neighboring town of Cuarte de Hueva officially requested this Monday the declaration of a catastrophic zone before the Local Security Board after the serious damage caused by the violent storm that occurred in the area last Thursday.
According to the Government delegate in Aragon, Fernando Beltrán, both towns meet “many of the requirements” required by law to benefit from this declaration, while El Burgo de Ebro, another seriously affected municipality, could benefit from the ordinary aid that the Ministry of the Interior has open for natural catastrophes.
From now on, the Government Delegation itself will have a month to write a report based on the State Meteorological Agency (Aemet) in which the exceptional nature of this episode is accredited -54.2 liters per square meter fell in the capital in about 30 minutes-, while the municipalities will have to send the corresponding list of damages. Subsequently, this declaration of a catastrophic area must be approved by the Council of Ministers.
“At the same time, we invite all affected people to check, through their insurance, if they have already covered the damage, because everything that is already covered by insurance or by the consortium will not be part of the aid offered by the State,” Beltrán said.
For her part, the mayoress of Zaragoza, the popular Natalia Chueca, asked the institutions for speed to expedite the aid. “We ask the Government of Spain and that of Aragon that, even if they are in office, they do not paralyze the procedures. Quick solutions are needed to reduce uncertainty,” she remarked after the meeting.
In parallel, Chueca announced that both the central Executive and the Aragonese Government have been requested to review the alert protocols to adapt them to the new meteorological circumstances. “They will be analyzed and a new working group will be created between the civil protection services of each of the administrations in order to improve these warning protocols and try to anticipate these situations,” he stressed.
The violent rains last Thursday left images that have gone around the world, with people trapped on the roof of their vehicles while cars and containers were mercilessly swept away by the floods.
Four days later, the cleanup work continues in the most affected areas, where the mud flooded the premises of various industrial estates and rendered their production or the machinery inside useless.
According to the mayoress of Cuarte, Elena Lacalle, the current situation is one of “absolute despair.” In his town, close to the Aragonese capital and home to some 15,000 people, there are 300 damaged warehouses, five of them with collapsed roofs, and more than 250 damaged vehicles, in addition to four families evicted with structural damage to their homes, for what that demanded “real aid that reaches the citizens as soon as possible.”
“There is still a lot of mud to remove, we are going to have to continue working hard on it. But now what prevails is to think about these industrialists, about the business that suffered power cuts of more than twelve hours, ”she explained. Meanwhile, in the long term he has urged a review of the pipelines to prevent the industry from being affected by future episodes again.
From the business level, Cepyme Aragón has been collecting data from the affected companies for days, a process that they hope to conclude in the coming days. “We are asking those affected by the quantification of damages, if they are going to have to stop production or not or when they will be able to return to normality,” said its president, María Jesús Lorente.
There is also concern about the future of the María Zambrano school, which was greatly affected by the intense storm. While the municipal services work to get the center ready, the residents request its transfer to another area of ??the neighborhood so that the children are not at risk if a situation like the one experienced is repeated.
“There is maximum concern” among families and neighbors because “we see, with surprise, how the works have resumed on María Zambrano, as if nothing had happened,” said the president of the Parque Venecia neighborhood association, José Antonio Andrew.
