The Generalitat Valenciana did not report to those responsible for the Buseo dam – an infrastructure in Chera (Valencia) under regional jurisdiction that overflowed during the 2024 dana – of the effects of this catastrophe that left 230 dead in Valencia. This was revealed this Wednesday before the judge of Catarroja (Valencia) who is investigating the accident, Nuria Ruiz Tobarra, the exploitation director of this facility, whose failure generated a flood that caused two deaths. “We had no prior information, apart from the warnings from the State Meteorological Agency (Aemet). We worked on it internally, but we did not receive any warning from the Generalitat,” the witness confessed, according to sources present at his appearance to EL PAÍS.
The manager of the Buseo dam has explained that on the day of the damage the danger began at 5:00 p.m. “The Automatic Hydrological Information System (flow control mechanism of the Júcar Hydrographic Confederation (CHJ)) gave data late and there was no communication. As of 10:15 p.m., telephone contact was lost,” said this civil engineer, who also recalled that the device that measured the flow was destroyed by water.
The witness has revealed that the seriousness of the situation in Buseo was not reported to 112 – the Generalitat’s telephone switchboard – until 11:03 p.m. on the day of the disaster. By then, most of the missing had already died. Those responsible for the dam, however, were aware of its overflow an hour before, according to the person in charge.
The exploitation manager has also revealed that emergency scenario 3 – the one that warns of an imminent breakage – was not declared “because it did not lead anywhere, since the sirens were not working.” “In the WhatsApp group that we had with the Generalitat, I think it was not discussed that the Buseo dam was overflowing,” he confessed. The engineer has agreed to provide the history of his communications to the instructor.
By partially overflowing, the Buseo dam avoided “a disaster” of the evacuation of a flow of 10,000 cubic meters per second, according to its manager. Built at the beginning of the last century, the facility was one of the three critical points most affected by the Dana of October 21, 2024, along with the Forata dam – an infrastructure in Yátova (Valencia) whose overflow could have caused 4,000 victims, according to the Generalitat – and the Poyo ravine, the rambla that unleashed the tragedy by flooding municipalities such as Paiporta or Catarroja, where the flood of 2024 left 55 and 25 dead, respectively. The Buseo dam already overflowed in the 1957 flood that left 81 dead in Valencia.
