Officials closed Diputación over AEMET forecast
- Diputació de València officials told a judge that Human Resources, not elected leaders, ordered staff home at 2 p.m. on October 29, 2024. - The report says the move was “spontaneous,” followed AEMET red-alert forecasts, and was taken after officials could not reach Ricardo Gabaldón or Vicente Mompó. - The report is now in the Catarroja court file, where the HR service chief has been called as a witness.
A report sent to the court in Catarroja says civil servants at the Diputació de València decided on their own to shut the provincial authority’s workplaces during the October 29, 2024 DANA, after consulting AEMET forecasts and without a formal order from political leaders. The document, delivered to the judge investigating institutional responses to the floods, says Human Resources sent workers home at 2 p.m. that day because “ningún responsable político” — no political official — approved the measure. Europa Press and other Spanish outlets reported the contents on May 20, 2026. The filing places the decision inside the wider judicial investigation into the floods that killed 230 people in Valencia province, according to the court request quoted by the report. The judge had asked the Diputació to explain who initiated the order to send staff home, which politician approved it, when it was taken and how it was communicated. The magistrate has now added the document to the case file and summoned the head of the HR service at the time as a witness. (europapress.es) ### What exactly does the report say happened inside the Diputació? The HR report says the initiative “partió del Servicio de Recursos Humanos,” or originated in the Human Resources department, after staff there received calls from employees asking whether any measures would be taken because of the weather forecast. The official who signed the filing said workers’ concern and AEMET forecasts showing a clear red alert led the department to draft a message for all staff. (infobae.com) The document says the decision to prepare that message was taken in mid-morning, between 12:30 p.m. and 1:30 p.m., after staff checked AEMET information online and consulted the regional emergency coordination center. An email sent at 2 p.m. then informed employees that activity at work centers was suspended as a preventive step. (infobae.com) ### Why does the phrase “no political official” matter in this case? The filing says no political office-holder formally agreed the closure. The HR chief wrote that, once the message had been drafted, staff were unable to contact any political official, including Ricardo Gabaldón, who was then responsible for Human Resources, and were also unable to reach Diputació president Vicente Mompó. (infobae.com) The report says the HR service then contacted the presidency service and decided to distribute the message through an internal mailing list used by several departments, including Human Resources. That sequence is the basis for the report’s conclusion that the measure was not politically authorized before it was sent. (infobae.com) ### What was AEMET warning about that day? AEMET’s own report on the October 29, 2024 event described it as an extraordinary episode of torrential and persistent rainfall in eastern Spain, with historic accumulations in the Valencian Community. The agency said rainfall totals exceeded 300 millimeters across a broad area of inland Valencia province and described the event as potentially the worst DANA-driven flood of the 21st century in Spain. (infobae.com) The HR filing does not say AEMET ordered any closure. It says HR staff consulted AEMET forecasts that indicated a “clear red alert” and acted after employee calls raised concern about whether protective measures would be adopted. ### Who are the political figures named in the document? (aemet.es) Vicente Mompó is the president of the Diputació de València, according to the provincial institution’s senior-officials page. Ricardo Gabaldón was the deputy responsible for Human Resources at the time of the floods, according to the court filing as reported by Europa Press and other outlets. (infobae.com) The report ties Gabaldón to Utiel, which it describes as the first municipality flooded by the overflow of the Magro river that day. That detail appears in the account of why HR staff could not reach the political chain of command before sending the message. (altoscargos.dival.es) ### What happens next in the Catarroja investigation? The Catarroja court has already incorporated the report into the case and ordered testimony from the HR service chief identified in the filing. The next step in this part of the investigation is that witness appearance, as the judge continues gathering records on how public institutions in Valencia responded on October 29, 2024. (infobae.com)
