After the DANA passed through Valencia, The region has been affected by floods, the destruction of houses and cars and the death of more than 200 people.. But not only the Valencian Community. Albacete, Aragón and Andalusia have also suffered the ravages of heavy rains. This is the second largest European flood in history and will be marked in the history of the community forever..
Although this natural catastrophe was inevitable, Lives could have been saved if a message had reached citizens’ mobile phones in time. This alert is called “ES-Alert” and consists of the following.
What is “ES-Alert”
This is an alert system created to notify the population about possible emergency situations that may occur in the area. The alert can warn of natural disasters (floods, a hurricane or the eruption of a volcano), terrorist attacks or other dangers. The person in charge of issuing these notices is the Emergency Coordination Center of each Autonomous Community (or the central government, if applicable) and its task is to disseminate a massive message to the mobile phones of the affected population. with the aim of warning of a specific danger and proposing various safety recommendations.
Controversy with the DANA notice
The alerts that should have reached cell phones in the affected areas did so late. According to several media outlets, The Integrated Operational Coordination Center (CECOPI), the body in charge of delivering these notices to the population and anticipating possible scenarios that may occur, was convened late.. A ruling that represents political negligence that could have prevented the deaths of many people.
Specifically, The automatic message sent by the Generalitat at 8:12 p.m. warned of “heavy rains” and asked to avoid traveling by road. But this message I was very late. Many people were already trapped in their cars or in the places where they were, without having time to react.
For its part, The AEMET gave the red alert notice in the community ten hours before, warning of the “extreme danger” of DANA that was approaching..
How to activate Civil Protection alerts
To activate emergency alerts on iPhone, follow the following steps.
- Access your iPhone Settings
- Select Notifications
- Activate the Civil Protection Pre-Alerts option
If you have Android, this is the way to activate the notices issued by Civil Protection:
- Enter the Settings application
- Select Security and Emergency
- Tap on Wireless Emergency Alerts and activate the option