The São Paulo Civil Defense clarifies the purpose of sound alerts sent to cell phones during storm forecasts. Roberto Farina, head of communications at the agency, emphasizes that the objective is to prevent and not alarm the population.
In an interview with CNN 360° This Thursday (26), Farina detailed the recent alert sent to residents of Campinas, in the interior of São Paulo.
“In the Campinas alert, information was received that there was a risk of flooding, flash floods, so people would look for a safe place and shelter,” he explained.
Objective information and fast action
The head of communications highlighted that the messages are concise due to character limitations in the alert system.
“The person who receives this information, they don’t need to be afraid, they don’t need to be scared, because the information is so they can prevent themselves and anticipate what’s coming,” said Farina.
In the specific case of Campinas, the situation was considered critical. Farina detailed: “We were in a critical scenario. So, there we have a flood area in several parts of the Campinas region, where it was identified both by IMET, an orange classification signal there, which is the critical signal, and CEMADEM, which also sent a high warning signal and very high for flood risk.”
Forecast and reality
Civil Defense meteorologists had identified rain cells with the potential for precipitation of 70 millimeters in less than an hour.
“If this scenario came to fruition, we would have major flooding problems there in Campinas, especially in the early hours of the morning,” explained Farina.
Fortunately, the situation did not worsen as expected. “The rain cell passed faster. It rained around 40 to 50 millimeters, which was enough in less than an hour, but it did not reach the most critical moment in that scenario”, concluded the head of communications, highlighting the importance of prevention and advance information to the population.
This content was originally published in Signal is a prevention, and not to cause alarm, says head of communications to CNN about rain warning in Campinas on the CNN Brasil website.
Source: CNN Brasil
I’m James Harper, a highly experienced and accomplished news writer for World Stock Market. I have been writing in the Politics section of the website for over five years, providing readers with up-to-date and insightful information about current events in politics. My work is widely read and respected by many industry professionals as well as laymen.
