Portugal’s prime minister Luís Montenegro has been in Peso da Régua today, assessing damages and assuring that new issues of landslides and structural collapses are all going to be taken on board, in spite of the fact that they were not included in any of the measures of extraordinary support announced to deal with the effects of Storm Kristin.
On the subject of those measures, however, more than 1,650 businesses have already applied for credit lines to rebuild, while 1,200 families have asked for help in reconstructing their homes.
“We have a situation that is mobilising us generally, throughout national territory,” the PM told reporters. “We have a programme that is currently specific to the municipalities that were most affected by Storm Kristin and are in a state of calamity, but obviously (…) we are not going to stop monitoring everything else that needs to be done throughout the country,” he said, referring to landslides, collapsed walls and road subsidence in municipalities (particularly in the Douro region).
Stressing that all current risk situations (flooding in the Tejo, Mondego, Sado and other river basins), require an ‘immediate response’, but that equally “we must begin and carry out the reconstruction of the country.
“At this moment, it is not just the reconstruction of the central region, which is in fact the area that was most severely affected by the Kristin depression, but we now need to extend the prospect of recovery to the entire national territory,” he admitted.
Referring to financial support through EU funding for farmers, Mr Montenegro said that “more than 1,400 farmers have presented their candidacies (…) So we have work that is focused on recovering from everything that has happened. We have work that is absolutely concentrated on the emergency that has happened, that is happening and what won’t end only with floods and flooding …”
In other words, there is still a lot more to come as a result of weeks of heavy rain that have weakened buildings and other infrastructure, as well as taking a toll on the natural world.
“Today in Régua I have seen houses that have collapsed, parts of houses that have collapsed and roads that have had to be closed because fissures have opened up in them,” the PM went on.
As of today, there are 68 municipalities in a ‘situation of calamity’ until Sunday, February 15.
The regions of the centre, Lisbon and Vale do Tejo and the Alentejo have been the most affected.
Better weather, we are told, is ‘on the horizon’ – but it is not here yet.
Source material: Diário de Notícias
