The mayors of the province of Tarragona complain that no alerts will be sent about the storm

Uprooted trees, flooded houses and parking lots, closed roads, suspended trains and, worst of all, a violent hailstorm that caught many people in their cars. Tarragona suffered a violent storm this Monday that caused minor injuries to about thirty people – four of them received care in health centers – and nearly 500 fire department interventions. The mayors of the affected areas, such as those of Tarragona and El Vendrell, complained that they were not warned in advance about the magnitude of the downpour. The mayor of Tarragona, the socialist Rubén Viñuales, stated this morning that they received the alert or pre-alert “when the storm was already upon us.” Junts and Comuns have requested the appearance of the councilor Núria Parlon and the director general of Civil Protection, Marta Cassany, to explain the management of the double episode.

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In statements to Rac1, Viñuales said that usually, based on the warnings they receive from the Catalonia Emergency Center (CECAT), they activate the alert or pre-alert. “In this case, it was not until minutes after it started. Moreover, they placed Tarragona out of danger. We are repeatedly issuing pre-alerts that often end up being nothing, but I prefer one,” he said about a downpour that caused flooding in the city, closed streets, many fallen trees, and a power outage in Monnars. “The weather forecasts at no time mentioned that there would be this crisis. The best thing is that there were no personal injuries,” he said in statements to the Diari de Tarragona.

The mayor of El Vendrell, Kenneth Martínez, has issued the same complaint and this is significant because the municipality already suffered a violent storm on Saturday. “The warnings arrived when it was already raining,” said the mayor. The episode caused 11 injuries and left a minor in critical condition. The storm forced the evacuation of a campsite and 200 young people from a nightclub. Councilor Ramon Espadaler justified that they did not have sufficient reasons to send the alarm to the population based on the Civil Protection forecast, which placed the storm intensity at level 4. And that alerts are only sent when that threshold is exceeded.

The director of Meteocat explained on Saturday that issuing alerts is not among their responsibilities and that this measure corresponds to Civil Protection. This Monday, the meteorological service issued a violent weather warning in Tarragona at 17:35, shortly before the storm broke out. Their forecast was a high danger level in Tarragonès, Baix Penedès, Alt Camp, Conca de Barberà, and Ribera d’Ebre (3-4) and very high (5-6) in Baix Camp and Priorat. However, the deputy director of the service, Imma Solé, stated that Meteocat’s warnings were not high enough to send the alert, although she admitted that storms formed where they were not expected.

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The sending of the Es-Alert to citizens’ mobile phones has become a useful but controversial tool. Civil Protection began using it to warn with specific instructions in situations of imminent life risk. Gradually, its use has been expanded preventively. Technicians evaluate how to proceed in each case, but the general rule is that it is usually used in situations where the danger threshold is 5 or 6 out of 6. Since then, controversy has accompanied Es-Alert, either due to overuse or underuse.

Junts and Comuns have requested the appearance of Parlon and Cassany for not activating the ES-Alert warnings to the affected population as well as the director of Civil Protection, Marta Cassany. In a statement, Junts denounced the “poor management” of the Government and criticized that, after Saturday’s rains, no ES-Alert warning was sent this Monday either. “In three days, two severe storms in southern Catalonia in which the Government of President Illa has been completely absent. Neither prevention nor reaction,” reproached the leader of Junts in the Parliament, Mònica Sales, on X, accusing the Catalan Executive of sending alerts “when unnecessary” and not doing so “when essential.” Junts requests that the damages be quantified and aid be allocated to the affected municipalities, residents, and businesses.

Along the same lines, Comuns has also submitted a series of questions for the Government to explain why it did not activate the ES-Alert. “The work of the emergency and security teams has been excellent, once again, but it is essential that the Government offers explanations about the reasons why an adequate prediction of the impact of violent weather could not be made, as well as explaining why the emergency was not properly alerted to the population with the sending of an Es-Alert,” Comuns state in their document.

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