GNR police have led a rescue operation today for 25 dogs at risk of seeing their shelters flooded by rising river waters.
As every hour brings further news of communities cut off without communications and/ or electricity and water, the reality is that the continual rain is seeing rivers now close to ‘bursting their banks’. In this case of the dogs it was the Sousa river.
Police, with the support of Civil Protection and the municipal police of Gondomar, managed to safely recover all 25 animals and distribute them between a private ‘quinta’ (farm) and a pet hotel, where they will be staying until conditions improve.
Meantime, more data has been coming in on the wind speeds that battered central regions. Authorities are still confirming one ‘gust’ in Degracias (Coimbra district) that appears to have reached a speed of 208 km/ hour. Several gusts were logged at between 120 and 150 km/ hour, and there was even one – hitting the air base at Monte Real – that reached 178 km/ hour.
With the government promising as rapid a response to people’s needs as possible, well over 300,000 homes in the Leiria district are still without power (meaning they also do not have water).
Once again (after the experience of the Iberian Blackout last April), people with battery-powered radios are the only ones in certain areas able to keep informed – and once again, people who didn’t have a stock of canned food and bottled water in their homes, are trying desperately to find food in supermarkets that are not accepting bank cards.
Reports stress that the issue of restoring power in some areas “could take days”.
Source material: SIC Notícias/ GNR
