With all eyes on Coimbra today – braced as the city is for a ‘hundred-year flood’, the situation overnight was ‘stable’ – and for the time being at least authorities are not moving forwards with the plan to evacuate a further 9,000 people from the Baixa district.
The city remains on ‘maximum alert’, and the situation is going to be reevaluated later this morning, mayor Ana Abrunhosa has confirmed.
Her message this morning was that people should be “prepared to leave their homes at any minute.”
At last night’s press conference, the mayor stressed the importance of removing cars from garages/ vulnerable areas, and safeguarding valuables.
The next few hours remain critical. Throughout the country, dams are at full capacity, rivers are running strong and high. It will be “a complex day”, confirms APA (the Portuguese environment agency).
Prime minister Luís Montenegro and environment minister Maria da Graça Carvalho will be returning to Coimbra this afternoon, when the situation of flooding is expected to be at its peak.
Source: SIC Notícias
