Afurada Parish Council
Douro River next to Ponte da Arrábida, in the early hours of 02/03/2026
Civil Protection has no record of any “serious situation” over the last few hours. There is an increase in river flow, but everything is monitored.
Civil protection reported today that no significant situations were recorded during the night related to increased flow rates rios, with the exception of the Douro which overflowed onto the banks of Porto and Vila Nova de Gaia.
“We are not aware at this point [08:30] of serious situations. The increase in river flows continues to be monitored by Sub-Regional Commands, but we have no indication that more people were evacuated during the night,” Elísio Pereira, from the National Emergency and Civil Protection Authority (ANEPC), told the agency Lusa.
According to Elísio Pereira, The most worrying situation was recorded on the Douro River, which overflowed this morning onto the banks of Porto and Nova de Gaia.
The water from the Douro entered the area of terraces from Porto and Gaia, but without causing significant casualties or damagesaid the assistant commander of the Captaincy of Douro.
In a situation report to the Lusa agency at around 6:45 am, Pedro Cervaens attributed the increase in the flow of the Douro River to the intense rain that was felt in the northern interior of Portugal and in .
“Today the river rose to the 6,15 metros quota at Cais dos Banhos [zona de referência]. It’s the first time reaching this high quota. Therefore, the Ribeira pier has already passed there [Porto] and Afurada [Gaia]. It is close to the terraces, but we have no information of any such significant occurrence”, he said.
A Douro Captaincy changed the alert of imminent orange floods for red, with navigation on the river already banned and specific restrictive measures in municipal intervention plans activated, said the assistant commander.
“We changed the orange to red, which means that we moved to the probability of being on the verge of flooding. It means that some areas that had not yet been hit by water began to be hit with another meaning, and also allows other agents to take certain measures”, explained Pedro Cervaens.
The assistant commander of the Captaincy of Douro said that navigation is only permitted under an exception, that is, “if necessary for security reasons”.
