The Government has responded to the Popular Group in Congress that it maintains communication with the regional and local administrations to monitor the situation in Beas de Guadix (Granada) due to the landslides on a hill damaged by the summer storm last August, a circumstance for which it has explained that the necessary conditions were not met for the declaration as an area severely affected by a civil protection emergency, formerly known as a catastrophic zone.
At the end of last August, the City Council of Beas de Guadix reported that it was going to prepare the necessary reports to request the declaration of a catastrophic zone to address the repair of the hill damaged by the storm a week earlier, estimated at around 885,000 euros, in which around fifty residents living in cave houses in the area were ordered to evacuate.
In a written response to a question from the PP in Congress, consulted by Europa Press, the Secretary of State for the Cortes and Constitutional Affairs states that «the Government is fully prepared to collaborate with the competent authorities and is available for any action that, within its powers and in accordance with current regulations, may contribute to the recovery of the affected area.»
The central Executive recalls that the State aid provided for in Royal Decree 307/2005, of March 18, in the face of emergency or catastrophic events, «is immediately applicable, without the need for a prior declaration of an area severely affected by a civil protection emergency, and is complementary to those established by the regional and local administrations.»
These aids are aimed at, among other cases, family units or economic coexistence units that have suffered personal or material damage in their habitual residence or in their essential belongings, local authorities, property communities, or individuals or legal entities «that have provided personal or goods services, at the request of the competent authority.»
They could be requested by those affected by submitting the corresponding forms, within one month from the day following the end of the catastrophic events or the emergency situation, at the Government Delegation in Andalusia or the Sub-delegation in Granada.
It details in this context that the Government intervenes when the criteria established in the National Civil Protection System are met, which, according to regulations, for the declaration as an area severely affected by a civil protection emergency, requires, «among other criteria, that a serious alteration in the living conditions of the population or the paralysis of essential services has occurred,» details the response to the PP, dated April 8.
In this sense, «there is no communication from the regional emergency service to the National Emergency Coordination Center of this Directorate General of Civil Protection and Emergencies regarding the activation of the corresponding regional emergency plan in emergency situations level 1 or 2 on the indicated dates, this being a necessary prerequisite for the declaration.»
Communication with the regional and local administrations is maintained in any case in order to «contribute, within the competences granted by the system, to the recovery of the affected area.»
