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Spain·Europe·Natural Disaster·Human Rights

Spain investigates weather agency over 2024 flood disaster response failures

Monday, 20 April 2026, 12:09 · 1 min read

Spain's Congress is investigating the handling of the deadly October 2024 DANA storm system (a cold-air drop weather phenomenon common to the western Mediterranean) that killed at least 230 people in the Valencia region. The head of climatology at AEMET, Spain's national meteorology agency, told a parliamentary inquiry that warnings were issued days in advance but that emergency coordinators failed to act, stating that "by five o'clock it was clear that half the province of Valencia was flooded and nobody was taking decisions." A mass alert to mobile phones only reached residents after 8 p.m., by which point at least 156 people had already died, raising serious questions about the response of regional authorities who convened an emergency coordination committee only after the disaster was already unfolding.

Sources
El PaísUn jefe de la Aemet, sobre la dana: “A las cinco estaba claro que media provincia de Valencia estaba inundada y nadie tomaba decisiones” ↗︎
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