Overview
- Ricardo Gabaldón told an examining judge in Catarroja that he received no warning about the flood’s magnitude from the Generalitat and that he acted on instinct.
- He said he closed all schools in Utiel at 7:00, five hours before a hydrological alert on the Magro river and about ten hours before a mass phone warning, which he believes averted student and parent deaths.
- He described a day that moved from an orange rain alert to red by late morning, with a local crisis meeting at 13:00, calls to the regional emergencies subdirector and the provincial fire chief around 14:00, and townwide flooding by late afternoon that forced rescues.
- A July judicial order previously noted he shut schools at 7:00 and concluded he reacted faster than then head of the Consell, Carlos Mazón.
- He said he did not tell then regional minister Salomé Pradas of confirmed fatalities before the crisis center met and he pressed for military emergency help as roads and phone lines failed; six died in Utiel and 230 across the Valencia region on October 29, 2024.