After a week of intense rain and strong winds that caused 10 deaths and left 68 municipalities in disaster, Portugal faces, this Wednesday, the arrival of a new storm, with populations still deprived of electricity and in need of help.
All districts of mainland Portugal are this Wednesday, and until Thursday, under yellow warning due to the forecast of rain, sometimes heavy, turning into showers, due to the passage of Leonardo depression.
The IPMA informed, in a statement, that the frontal waves associated with the Leonardo depression will affect the weather in mainland Portugal until Saturday, with periods in which the Precipitation will be persistent and at times strong, snowfall in the northern and central highlands, strong wind and strong sea agitation.
“In the following days, new frontal surfaces are expected to pass and this very unstable pattern will continue”, the note states.
The frontal system starts in the southern region and will extend, little by little, to the remaining regions of the continent during the day, with the forecast that the period with higher accumulated precipitation values and more intense wind, whether on the night of Wednesday to Thursdaygradually changing to showers, which may include hail and accompanied by thunderstorms.
What will the weather be like in each district?
Due to this meteorological forecast, IPMA issued Notice rain yellow sometimes strong for the districts of Évora, Faro, Setúbal and Lisbon until 3pm and from this time until 9am on Thursday.
Viseu, Vila Real, Santarém, Viana do Castelo and Braga are under yellow warning due to rain until 9pm and then entre as 03h e as 09h of Thursday.
Bragança, Porto, Guarda, Leiria, Beja, Castelo Branco, Aveiro, Coimbra and Portalegre will be under yellow warning due to rain between 3am and 9am of Thursday.
IPMA also placed all districts on alert due to windon both days, gusts of up to 90 kilometers per hour and up to 100 in the mountains are expected.
Due to the state of the sea, the sea bars of Aveiro, Caminha, Douro, Esposende, Figueira da Foz, Vila Praia de Âncora, Póvoa do Varzim, Vila do Conde, Ericeira, Nazaré, São Martinho do Porto, Albufeira and Alvor are closed to all navigation.
The sea bars of Leixões, Viana do Castelo, Lisbon and Portimão are restricted.
Leonardo starts to do damage
The new depression has already flooded some areas of Grândolawith the circulation of Southern railway line suspended in that location from the district of Setúbal.
Furthermore, according to the CP, the suspension of the Douro Line, between Régua and Pocinho, and on the Oeste Line.
The National Emergency and Civil Protection Authority (ANEPC) recorded, between 00:00 and 07:00, 121 occurrences related to bad weather.
According to civil protection, the majority of incidents (33) were registered in the Lisbon sub-region and in the Setúbal Peninsula with 26.
17.1% of the population in a disaster situation
The 68 municipalities in a situation of calamity after the passage of depression Kristin have 17.1% of the population resident in Portugal and 16.7% of the total area.
Civil Protection recorded five deaths directly associated with the passage of the Kristin depression and the Câmara da Marinha Grande announced another fatality, to which were added four deaths recorded due to falls from roofs, during repairs, or poisoning originating from a generator.
Mayors respond to the needs of the population in successive calls for the reconstruction of houses and infrastructure, which require materials and qualified labor.
The damage is still being counted, from the total or partial destruction of houses, energy supply and communications networks, at a time when there is fear of worsening weather conditions and a new rise in river waters, already overflowing.
The storm’s wake severely affected communication routes, roads, railways and schools, leaving populations isolated and people displaced. You injuries number in the hundreds.
Leiria, Coimbra and Santarém are the districts with the most damage.
Schools that closed on Wednesday last week are expected to start reopening just a week later, but some only open their doors on Monday.
In Marinha Grande, electricity supply was restored in half of the municipality, while communications were only restored in the city center, according to information available on Tuesday.
In other areas of the country, such as the district of Castelo Branco, there are also municipalities without mobile communications or unstable networks.
The Armed Forces were involved in helping the population, but the Help took a long time to arrive on the ground and continues to be requested to help rebuild windblown roofs and other actions to restore as much normality as possible.
The Government, however, determined toll exemptionfor a week, to facilitate mobility in the areas most affected by the Kristin depression, in four sections with origin and destination at highways 8, 17, 14 and 19 interchanges.
The Government estimates that around 20 million euros for interventions recovery.
For those counting on funds from the Recovery and Resilience Plan, the president of the PRR Audit and Control Committee has already warned that it is not possible to “count on the money” from the plan to address the impact caused by bad weather.
O country mobilizes to send aid to the most affected populationsorganizing groups of volunteers to collect goods and clean roads, with many roads cut off by falling trees or flooding.
With the dams at maximum capacity, the soils saturated and the forecast for continued rain, floods are expected along the riversnamely the Douroin Régua, but also in other places.
The European Commission expressed solidarity with Portugal, given the impacts of bad weather, defending an articulated response, use of the solidarity fund and investment in more resilient electrical networks.
The passage of Depression Kristin, in the early hours of January 27th, left 774 kilometers (7%) of very high voltage lines inoperative and brought down 61 poles.
Nearly 1.7 million customers were left without electricityas a result of the adverse weather conditions that occurred that night, according to E-Redes, from the EDP group.
Since Tuesday, several districts of the continent and the archipelagos of Madeira and the Azores have remained under warning due to wind, rain, sea disturbances and snowfall.
