This evening, the end of a Friday 13th that had threatened so much in the way of further flooding damages, Coimbra started to breathe more easily.
Fears that pressure from the Aguieira dam would prove too much for current infrastructure, and flood the entire Baixa district of the city, have rolled back. The worst did not happen; has not happened and may well not happen.
Authorities aren’t allowing themselves to celebrate just yet – but there is ‘light at the end of the tunnel’. And ‘joy’: President Marcelo did one of his inimitable ‘impromptu’ visits at the end of the day; he bought a flat cap; met the mayor in wine shop – and whether this was staged for the press, or not, it doesn’t really matter: Friday night ended with a feeling of ‘hope’, after so many days of fear and desperation.
There is still an enormous amount that needs to be done, not just in Coimbra. But the images this evening of a very relaxed president, walking around an historic city that had been fearing ‘a hundred year flood’, somehow provided the antidote that many will be needing after so many days of tension.
Reports this evening from outlying areas, like Montemor-o-Novo, still show alarmingly high water levels in residential areas, but the overriding feeling is that this nightmare may be turning the right kind of corner.
As for Coimbra’s mayor, she has a major fan in President Marcelo. The outgoing head of state did not hold back citing her ‘leadership capacity’, her respect for other mayors, her tireless work to keep Coimbra safe and completely informed.
Marcelo stressed the gift that mayor Ana Abrunhosa has in imparting information, exactly when it is needed and in the way that everyone can understand. In fact, he said she manages to communicate in a way that “no one else can”.
If this was an oblique criticism of the government’s own communication failings, no one this evening was really taking notice. They were just finally breathing more easily, hoping that Coimbra is finally on the path towards recovery.
As she accompanied the president through the city streets, mayor Abrunhosa conceded that if everything goes well overnight, populations evacuated from rural areas earlier this week will be given the all-clear to return to their homes tomorrow.
Source material: SIC Notícias
