Friday sees yet another day in which multiple areas are under threat from rising rivers; homes have been ‘destroyed’ by landslides; another elderly man has fallen to his death from a roof while trying to repair storm damage – and the wind and rains show no sign of abating.
The latest depression (Leonardo) is moving out of national territory – but a new one (Marta) is on its tracks: there will be no significant let up for ‘at least a week’, say meteorologists.
An update as of this morning shows that the River Douro burst its banks in the early hours, with water entering into Porto and Nova de Gaia, but “without causing significant”.
Deputy commander of Douro Port Authority, Pedro Cervaens, attributed the rise in the river’s flow to heavy rain in northern Portugal and Spain.
“Today, the river rose to 6.15 metres at Cais dos Banhos [reference area]. This is the first time it has reached such a high level. Therefore, it has already passed the Ribeira [Porto] and Afurada [Gaia] quays. It is close to the terraces, but we have no information on any significant incidents,” he said.
Reiterating that he was not aware of any “complicated situations,” the deputy commander of the Douro River Authority recalled that access to flooded areas has already been restricted and property safeguarded.
“We will now see how this develops over the next few hours and days, because the level has risen in this way due to a very significant increase in discharges. We have also exceeded 7,000 cubic metres per second for the first time at the Crestuma dam,” he explained.
Pedro Cervaens said that although the coastline has not been greatly affected, there has been a lot of rain inland and in Spain, which has increased the flow not only of the River Douro but of all its tributaries.
“They are discharging more, and so there is a lot of water flowing into the river. The dams have no choice but to discharge water,” he said.
Ten districts of mainland Portugal, the north coast of Madeira, and Porto Santo are currently under an orange warning, the second most serious, due to rough seas, according to the Portuguese Institute of the Sea and the Atmosphere (IPMA).
According to the IPMA, the north coast of Madeira and Porto Santo are under an orange warning until 3 pm today, which will remain in effect until noon on Saturday in the districts of Viana do Castelo, Porto, and Beja.
A new fatality (yet again of an elderly man trying to repair storm damage to a roof) has now brought the number of people who have died in Portugal in the last week of abysmal weather to 12. Hundreds of people have been injured – and scores ‘displaced’, while almost 90,000 are still without electricity (and consequently water), and may stay that way for some time yet.
The latest news of evacuations comes from Arruda dos Vinhos (a municipality within the Lisbon district) which suffered a landslide overnight due to the sheer weight of water within the soil.
Incidents like these are ‘the next drama’ on authorities ‘be-prepared’ list. Yesterday it was the ‘avalanche of water, mud and rocks’ in Portalegre, today it is the landslide in Arruda dos Vinhos that has seen over 20 homes forcibly evacuated. It is not even certain that homeowners will be able to return to their homes such is the scale of the damages.
As reports have said, Arruda dos Vinhos’ calamity has nothing to do with excessive winds or rivers bursting their banks. “These are landslides caused by too much water in soils that have become saturated,” mayor Carlos Alves has explained to Rádio Renascença. “This is normal from a geological point of view” – but a calamity for the district that has also seen various roads suffer extraordinary damages.
Mayor Alves is forecasting “millions of euros” to fix Arruda dos Vinhos problems – and nothing can be done while the rains continue with their current persistence.
Lusa this morning ends many of its texts with the observation that “the government has declared a situation of calamity for 68 municipalities until next Sunday and announced a package of support measures worth up to €2.5 billion” – but if incidents like the one in Arruda dos Vinhos become ‘a new hazard’, there are likely to be new municipalities added to the list of those ‘in calamity’, and the time-limit for the situation will almost certainly have to be extended.
While other riverside communities are being evacuated for their own safety throughout national territory, Cáritas – the church charity – has warned of the housing vulnerability of many people, including migrants, who “cannot be forgotten”.
“It is a situation that is causing us great concern. We are encountering situations where families are living in rented houses, but without any contract or rent receipts,” Nelson Costa, director of services at Cáritas Diocesana de Leiria-Fátima, tells Lusa.
On Thursday, technicians from Cáritas came across “a family whose only place to sleep is in the living room”.
“When we went to visit this home, the three children in the household were in the car, because it was the safest and most dignified place for them to be,” Costa added. Everyone (no matter their nationalities) needs “dignity (…) these people are also very important for Portugal, they are looking for better living conditions and are fighting hard to achieve them”.
“This storm has once again jeopardised the dignity and life plans of all these people, from migrants to Portuguese nationals,” says Nelson Costa.
With presidential elections taking place in most of the country on Sunday, the candidate tipped to win – former leader of PS Socialists, António José Seguro – has said he will be holding his first open presidency in the storm hit centre of the country. Today is the final day of campaigning. And as we wait to learn ‘what else’ is coming, alerts have come in from a number of parts of the country on landslides affecting roads. Authorities’ advice remains: ‘do not go out unless you have to’.
Army and Navy personnel have been performing invaluable tasks, and helping communities get through the agony
source material: LUSA/ Rádio Renascença/ Facebook
