Around 16,000 households and other consumers were without power at 8:30 this morning in the districts of Lisbon, Santarém, and Setúbal, as Storm Claudia battered the mainland.
A number of ports and harbours remain closed to navigation today due to strong sea swells, which have seen IPMA meteorological institute issue raise weather warnings to the maximum (red) scale, now beginning to calm back to orange/ yellow.
Civil Protection authority ANEPC has reported hundreds of incidents up and down the country, mainly involving flooding and/ or the falling of trees onto roads and property (both private and public), particularly between midnight last night and 6am this morning.
Also much earlier this morning, E-REDES reported many thousands of consumers suffering power outages. The network assures its teams are “on permanent alert and mobilised in the field” for ‘a quick resolution of the situation’.
According to ANEPC, most incidents were recorded in the ‘west region’: Leiria, Coimbra, the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, and the Setúbal peninsula. A source from the Setúbal Peninsula Sub-Regional Command indicated that the most affected areas in the region are Seixal, Barreiro, Moita, Montijo and Alcochete.
Indeed, in Montijo schools did not open this morning, although they are expected to resume classes after lunch.
So far, there have been no injuries reported.
Claudia is expected to stick around all day, and into the weekend: weather warnings are ‘improving’, with Évora, Beja, Portalegre under orange alerts until midday, and Faro under orange alert until 6pm.
Faro, Setúbal, Lisbon and Beja will then remain under a yellow warning (the least severe) until the weekend due to rough seas, with the possibility of “south-westerly waves of 4 to 5.5 metres, especially in the windward areas”.
All regions of mainland Portugal and the archipelago of Madeira will also be under yellow warnings for different reasons – rough seas, wind or rain – and at different times until Saturday.
Meantime, sailing/ fishing is pretty much off-limits, with 14 ports and harbours closed, including Douro, Esposende, Caminha, Vila Praia de Âncora, Póvoa do Varzim, Vila do Conde, Ericeira, Alvor, Vila Real de Santo António, Faro, Olhão, Quarteira, Tavira, and Vilamoura – and navigation restricted at the ports of Aveiro, Figueira da Foz, Albufeira, and Portimão.
The bad weather has also caused rail upsets between Entroncamento and Santarém, and between Pinhal Novo and Poceirão, due to a signals failure prompted by the opening of a sink hole. This issue was being dealt with as this text went up online.
The orange warning is issued by IPMA whenever there is a “moderate to high risk weather situation,” and the yellow warning is issued when there is a risk situation for certain activities dependent on the weather situation.
Storm Claudia is expected to leave the mainland towards the end of the weekend.
Source: LUSA
