public safety

Official says flood response too slow

David mesa/la prensa

Cleaning up:A former SINAPROC official said the government’s response to Friday’s flooding should have been faster.1110681

Arturo Alvarado, a former director of the Sistema Nacional de Protección Civil (Sinaproc), said yesterday that President Martín Torrijos should have acted more quickly to assist residents impacted by heavy flooding in Panama City and San Miguelito last Friday.

Torrijos declared a “state of emergency” in flooded areas along the Río Juan Díaz three days after the disaster struck. For Alvarado, this decision should have been made right away, as officials had to help more than 4,000 people that were impacted by the event. That would have allowed aid to start flowing into the area in a more efficient manner.

However, current SINAPROC Director Luis Francisco Sucre dismissed the criticism and said that the agency began helping residents as soon as the flooding took place, moving people to emergency shelters.

Sucre also dismissed notions that the agency should have been aware that flooding was a possibility due to warnings from the electric company Empresa de Transmisión Eléctrica (Etesa), which monitors rainfall due to its impact on various hydroelectric projects.

The director, however, said that there was no indication that the flooding would be so severe.

“The rivers were being monitored, but nothing was detected that would have warranted alerting the community,” he said.

Luz Graciela de Calzadilla, a meteorologist with Etesa, said the entity sent two reports to SINAPROC on Friday about the rainfall, but that the majority of the rain fell after those reports had been sent.

Residents in the area have blamed the flooding on construction debris that blocked storm drains.

Urban planner Álvaro Uribe said another problem was the large amount of garbage that is thrown into rivers in the area, which also blocks storm drains.