This noon, Mayor Enrique Cresto and Mayor-elect Francisco Azcue held a working meeting with the purpose of initiating the transition process for the change of authorities in the municipality. The Vice Mayor-elect Magdalena Reta de Urquiza and officials from the municipal cabinet participated in the meeting. Later, Cresto and Azcué presided over the Civil Defense meeting where the evolution of the Uruguay River flood was analyzed.
“We were talking with Francisco and Magdalena about different aspects related to municipal management, the public policies developed in recent years, and the achievements we reached together, which today constitute the starting point for the next administration,” commented Cresto.
“With an eye on institutional quality and from our commitment to the city, we are working on the idea of sending an ordinance on transition to the Deliberative Council, to make this process as transparent and consolidated as possible,” the Mayor anticipated.
“Today we talked about the municipality's payroll, that is: the salary staff that we are going to hand over, which is practically the same staff we received and which does not exceed 50 percent of the budget. Also about the counter-cyclical fund that will remain for the incoming administration, guaranteeing the balance and economic stability of the transition. We also talked about the budget, which must be adapted to the government plan of the incoming authorities. We are already closing an agenda so that our teams can begin to work immediately, which ultimately contributes to the maturity and responsibility that residents expect from political leadership in these democratic processes,” added Cresto.
WEARING THE CONCORDIA JERSEY
Azcue, for his part, highlighted: “We have a commitment to the people of Concordia, which is that the day after the elections take place, we begin to work on an orderly and neat transition. That is why I thank the Mayor for having received us and we are going to work together during all this time.”
Regarding the Civil Defense meeting that the Mayor-elect shared with Cresto, he commented: “this situation that our city is experiencing mobilizes us, it moves us all, beyond the role that we have today, in my case as Mayor-elect, but also as a resident of Concordia. We are here to work, to accompany this administration, and in this case specifically regarding the flood, which is affecting many families, many merchants, and today we are here to work, to support them, with all our capacity and effort,” he said.
“This is something that must unite the people of Concordia and that is the message we are giving. Beyond the electoral contest, which kept us as rivals and is a stage that ended yesterday, today we are here to work for Concordia. We are wearing the Concordia jersey and in this period of time we are going to work so that, with these measures that our Mayor has announced, we carry out this transition in an orderly, neat way and thinking about what is good and positive for our city,” he concluded.
EVACUATIONS AND FORECASTS
Regarding the Uruguay River, the Hydrology Department of the Mixed Technical Commission of Salto Grande communicated in its latest information report that:
“Until 7:00 a.m. tomorrow, the evacuated flow will vary between 21,000 and 22,000 m³/s. The maximum levels at the ports of Concordia and Salto will not exceed the values of 13.00 and 13.20 meters, respectively. Starting at 7:00 a.m. tomorrow, the evacuated flow will vary between 21,500 and 23,500 m³/s. The maximum levels at the ports of Concordia and Salto will not exceed the values of 13.50 and 13.70 meters, respectively. The reservoir level will tend to 33.50 m. For the rest of the week: The river level downstream of the dam will continue to increase, potentially reaching 14.50 m in Concordia and 14.70 m in Salto.”
In this scenario, there are currently more than 25 families that had to be relocated and the number is expected to increase in the coming hours.
“We do not want to generate alarm unnecessarily, but with these values disseminated by CTM, people can start planning in advance how to proceed,” indicated the municipal director of Risk Management, Mauricio Alegre, in this regard.
“We ask families to call 103 in advance so that we can assist them with the relocations and have space available in the areas that, if necessary, we will be enabling as evacuation centers,” he added.
Finally, the Secretary of Social Development, Amadeo Cresto, commented that “we are on alert and taking care of all work fronts, in an orderly manner and as a team, with the advantage that in previous floods we had many more families in evacuation at this river level; but the housing and family relocation works of recent years determine that today the outlook is different, which operationally also represents an advantage regarding how this emergency is being addressed,” he concluded.