As Spain grapples with the consequences of the flash floods that struck on Tuesday, the blame game has already begun, with disaster relief agencies accused of being slow to respond.

Much of the country has been hit hard by heavy rain and hail, causing rapid flooding in many areas that has already claimed at least 72 lives.

But the civil protection service, which is deployed in natural disasters, only issued an alarm at 8:15 p.m. local time on Tuesday, when the flooding had already caused much damage.

“The scale of the tragedy calls into question whether the population was warned too late: the Civil Protection sent warnings when cities were already flooded,” read the headline on the website of the newspaper El Mundo.

As the newspaper further notes, “hundreds of people were stuck in industrial estates and on roads throughout the night from Tuesday to Wednesday, as the roads were already closed and access cut off.”

Accusations are flying around on social media as people wonder why local governments and politicians weren’t better prepared.

“The handling of what happened in Valencia was negligent and irresponsible,” wrote lawyer Isabel Díaz. “People have died because of the incompetence of those in charge.”

Another social media user named Santo March said the national meteorological agency “can’t predict this, but it can predict the weather in 20-30 years.”

At the same time, cost savings are emerging as another potential culprit.

The regional president of Valencia, the conservative Carlos Mazón, was forced to defend his decision to eliminate the Valencia Emergency Unit (UVE) on the grounds that it was inefficient.

The UVE was established by the previous left-wing government to respond to weather-related emergencies such as floods or forest fires. When Mazón came to power last year, he immediately put an end to it, with his People’s Party (PP) describing the agency as “a shadowy organization.”

In a statement, the Intersindical union attacked the decision, saying that “by prioritizing short-term interests they contribute to environmental degradation and worsen the consequences of extreme weather phenomena.”

Catalan nationalist politician Gabriel Rufián also criticized the abolition of UVE, saying Mazón had been “proud” of the organization’s dismantling.

The regional government of Valencia responded by saying that UVE was “simply a fictitious organization, without firefighters, without materials and without efficiency.”

However, others have pointed to the Valencian leader’s appearance before the media on Tuesday when he said the heavy rainfall expected to “reduce its intensity” from around 6pm local time.

Instead, it began wreaking havoc across much of the region.

Politicians in some of the affected cities have been particularly vocal. Andreu Salom, mayor of L’Alcúldia, said he felt “abandonment and absolute powerlessness.”

“As mayor, no one informed me about the danger of the Magre River overflowing its banks,” he said. “It has filled the city with water, mud and debris.”

Mr Mazón has insisted that emergency services were on alert from Monday and that the extraordinary nature of the weather conditions made it difficult to know exactly what to advise Valencians.

“Experts have spoken about an absolutely unprecedented situation,” he said, citing the “abrupt nature of meteorology.”

Meanwhile, activists have called for faster and stronger action to halt climate change, which they say has caused the floods.

Eva Saldaña, executive director of Greenpeace Spain, said that “the climate emergency is not an abstract concept, but a reality that affects our lives and in this case costs lives.”

Jorge Olcina, a climate scientist from the University of Alicante and co-author of a recent report on climate change in Spain, told Cadena Ser radio that the recent floods are “Mediterranean evidence of climate change,” which, he explained, “is changing the world ”. way it rains.”

He also said that warnings from the National Weather Service should have been enough to keep people indoors and away from danger, but that “people want to live normal lives even when there is a red alert.”