Valencia mayor says outdated flood maps and late warnings left city unaware before 17 died in 2024 disaster
Appearing before a congressional committee on Monday, Valencia mayor María José Catalá argued that a municipal flood plan with cartographic errors left the city unaware that the Poyo ravine could flood its southern districts, where 17 people died.
Flood plan’s blind spot
Catalá told the committee that the city’s flood action plan, approved under the previous administration led by Compromís mayor Joan Ribó, did not foresee any risk of flooding in the three affected southern districts: La Torre, Forn d’Alcedo and Castellar-l’Oliveral. She read a passage stating that water from a Poyo ravine overflow would flow directly into the Albufera lake and rice fields, not into urban areas. The council therefore alerted the Devesa Albufera service to open the sluice gates, but never considered warning residents of those districts.
The plan did not foresee flood risk for the affected districts.
The mayor said no one told the city that a wall of water was coming, so the municipal loudspeaker alert system was never activated.
At what point do we use the megaphone, if nobody warned us that a flood was coming?
Late alerts and missed warnings
Catalá detailed the sequence on 29 October 2024. She called the regional emergency secretary and councillor at 08:56, becoming, she said, the first mayor in the region to do so. The municipal operational coordination centre (Cecopal) met at 13:00 and again at 15:00. A special alert for the Poyo ravine was issued at 12:20. But the first rescue call reached the local police only at 20:04, from València Sud station.
The first flood warning we received was at 20.04 at the València Sud station.
Soon after, the Es-Alert system was triggered at 20:11, and Catalá spoke with the mayor of La Torre at 20:13. Firefighters arrived at 20:20 to find the area already underwater; most victims were trapped in garages. Catalá also noted that the regional emergency coordination centre (Cecopi) only warned the city at 20:47.
- Mayor Catalá calls the regional emergency secretary and councillor.
- Special alert issued for the Poyo ravine.
- First meeting of the municipal operational coordination centre (Cecopal).
- Second Cecopal meeting.
- First rescue call received by local police at València Sud station.
- Es-Alert emergency message sent.
- Catalá speaks with the mayor of La Torre.
- Firefighters arrive; the area is already flooded.
- Regional emergency centre (Cecopi) warns the city of flooding in parts of the capital.
Defence of the former regional president
When several MPs asked whether she still thought Carlos Mazón was the best president Valencians could have, Catalá replied that the former head of the Generalitat had already assumed his political responsibilities.
She declined to comment on whether Mazón should retain his parliamentary immunity now that he faces legal proceedings.He is the only one who has assumed his political responsibilities in this lamentable event.
Political clashes in the hearing
Compromís MP Àgueda Micó accused Catalá of having said on television that the city was not affected, treating the district residents as second-class citizens. Catalá countered that she had added “except the districts,” noting that the city centre was not razed like Paiporta and Catarroja. EH Bildu MP Otero asked about a council report indicating that the first warning from the regional emergency service came as late as 23:47, suggesting Catalá had far more to reproach the Generalitat for. The mayor stuck to her position that the municipal government had no competence to monitor the upper reaches of the ravine and that the flood plan’s outdated cartography was the core failure.
