BarcelonaThe information about the devastation in the Valencian Country is coming in trickles. According to the latest official data from the authorities, there are currently 211 deaths in the Valencian Country; 215 adding those of Castile-La Mancha (3) and Andalusia (1). However, the death toll from the catastrophe has practically not changed for the past 48 hours and no authority has given a provisional figure for the missing; a way of acting that is causing outrage and uncertainty among many citizens who demand answers. Also, the fact that the government data hasn’t matched until this Monday evening doesn’t help either. Through the Integrated Operational Cooperation Center (Cecopi), the Generalitat Valenciana has maintained for 48 hours that there have been 210 deaths in the autonomous community, while the Spanish executive said there were 211. And this Monday there are still there was more debauchery, because the Ministry of the Interior mistakenly increased the number of fatalities to 215 and had to correct it. In addition, this evening two Spanish ministers have assured that the number of missing people they are working with is “very low” and that it will occur “in the next few days”, but without specifying what the magnitude of this figure could be.
Although the specific reasons behind this discrepancy and the lack of communication are unknown, experts point to four hypotheses: caution when giving data, the difficulty of finding victims on the ground, certain communication errors and a possible political strategy.
“The main criterion for crisis communication is to try to provide as much information as quickly as possible,” explains the professor of communication and expert in crisis communication at Pompeu Fabra University ( UPF), Carles Pont. “In principle what you have to do is not to give information that could worsen the situation, but in the case of the Valencian Country things cannot be worse, therefore, they should give all the data from minute zero”, warns Pons. It matches Ingeborg Porcar, head of the Barcelona trauma, crisis and conflict unit of the UAB (UTCCB): “The truth must be told as soon as possible and, if you don’t know it, you must explain what you are doing to find out -ho”.
Regarding the fact that the death toll has not changed in the last few hours, Pons assures that “it is strange that with the figures of deaths no clearer information is given, considering that it seems that it should be a number so big.” Without directly questioning the data that the Valencian government is providing, Porcar insists that, in the case of not having data, it must be explained why this lack of information is due and what is being done to get it “The worst thing you can do in a case like this is to raise suspicions,” he acknowledges.
An option proposed by Pons is that the Valencian government should have considered making a daily communication of data, not only of victims, but also of how they are acting. “You have to communicate the organization, the victims and the media you’re putting there and what they’re doing in a clear way, especially when you have so many people making sure that help doesn’t get to them. You have to explain what you’re prioritizing. You have to report out of respect for the victims,” he points out.
Beyond communicative efficiency, Porcar also puts on the table one of the criticisms that have been gaining strength for days: “In all this, you have to add political interests and think about who can benefit from the image that is given of the catastrophe”. In this regard, Pons admits that he does not know if there is a political strategy behind the lack of information, but he is very clear about the consequences that such a maneuver would entail. “If you don’t tell the truth sooner or later it will be known. If you hide something because you consider it will benefit you politically you will end up generating a subcrisi which can be much bigger than the initial crisis. In fact, in most crises that are not managed well, those responsible end up resigning more because of it subcrisi than not for the initial reason”, he explains.
Number of missing persons
The communication management of the Valencian government has also received strong criticism because since the beginning of the catastrophe, almost a week ago, at no time has the figure been given or a provisional balance indicating how many people are missing due to the DANA . In this case Pons warns that this action would be correct if they are not clear on the data, because this can magnify the crisis and then the executive will have to retract. However, he also warns: “If they were clear and did not give it, then it is clear that there would be a political strategy.”
Again, both experts insist that the best option – and obviously the fairest – is to be transparent. “The truth involves saying what you know and what you don’t know. When you don’t know something, you have to say it,” insists Pons. “Everyone can understand things if you explain them well. In a case like this, you have to explain that a natural disaster is different than another type of accident and that the fact that the infrastructures are affected also makes the process of knowing and to verify the situation of the missing persons,” details Porcar.
The obstacles of the new phase of rescues
This Monday, the representative of the Spanish government in the Valencian Country, Pilar Bernabé, explained that the search “on the surface” has finished and that, since no more people have been found, the number of victims has not increased. In this sense, the expert in maritime rescue specialized in rescue in rivers, floods and water flows, Ramsés Martí explains that “the context is very complex”, because the victims who have been found so far are the last to were affected by the floods. Now it remains to find the first people who were washed away by the water and who may be much more “buried” under the mud, but also under the debris and cars.
“The human body is very flexible and there can be victims in places you wouldn’t expect like under cars or pipes, so to find them you have to be much more thorough and therefore it’s slower work” , describes He explains that these victims can be found in spaces where “a person wouldn’t normally fit”, which means that the search can only be done manually and with the canine unit, because if machinery is used it is easy for a body to pass unnoticed “They can be under several levels of mud, but also reeds and cars, so the rescue task is more dangerous because the professionals are more likely to get a cut or injure themselves. All this makes this second phase of rescue is much slower than the first,” he laments.
Martí also warns that the water could have taken many people to the sea, where the search is more complicated and where, on many occasions, you have to wait for a body to float to locate it. “We have to think that there will be people who will take a long time to find and that some may never be located,” he acknowledges.
