No more could be done, calamity situation, 10 thousand euros: Montenegro spoke about bad weather

Government will support reconstruction of houses without the need for documentation. State support should reach 2,500 million.

Luis Montenegro spoke to the country, after the extraordinary meeting of the Council of Ministers, which lasted around three hours this Sunday and took place at the prime minister’s official residence, in São Bento (Lisbon).

The only point in the statement: the response and analysis to , which killed at least eight people and left many people either without a home or in greater economic difficulties.

The situation of calamity will be extended in mainland Portugal until next Sunday, February 8announced the Prime Minister.

The calamity situation had been declared by the Government on Thursday, until 11:59 pm today (Sunday, the 1st) for around 60 municipalities.

Luís Montenegro, assured that “Everything that could be done was done to prevent and put all forces in readiness in a timely manner to face an adversity that was not anticipated by anyone. From the point of view of what was possible to do, it was done.”

However, he assumed that “there will be no question of deepening” reflection on this matter in the future.

Support

The Government will support the reconstruction of own and permanent housing in interventions up to 10,000 euros “no documentation required” for cases where there is no insurance coverage.

The same amount will be available for situations related to agriculture e forest exactly the same amount.

O total value of public support to respond to the consequences of Storm Kristin will be of 2,500 million eurosestimating that they have been or are on the ground 34 thousand operational.

Montenegro said that the work to recover the supply of electrical energy Most of it has already been done, but he admitted that “it still affects around 167 thousand homes of the more than one million that were affected”.

The Government leader also announced additional transfers of 400 million euros to Portuguese Infrastructure for more urgent interventions on the railway and highway; 200 million euros for the CCDR so that they can provide local authorities with the most necessary and urgent funding for the recovery of public equipment and infrastructure, “starting, from the outset, with schools”; and 20 million euros for the most urgent recovery of cultural heritage.

The Government will have two lines of credit for companiesone of 500 million of euros for treasury needs and other 1000 million for the recovery of business structures, in the part not covered by insurance.

“Our estimate is that the line of credit for the treasury will be available within a week and the line of credit for the recovery of companies could be available within approximately 3 weeks”, he detailed.

Luís Montenegro assured that Portugal will execute everyone ongoing investments under the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR), despite the trail of destruction caused by the passage of the Kristin depression across mainland Portugal.

Flood risk

Looking to the near future, the Prime Minister warned that there are risks that, in the coming days, some riverside areas may have to be evacuated, appealing to the population to follow the instructions of the authorities.

“It is expected that with the levels of precipitation that we can anticipate, some situations of full, of flood. We know that the soils are saturated and we know that there are several affected infrastructures that will make the situation difficult. We also know that some riverside areas will face more serious situations, which may even require evacuation”, he warned.

Therefore, the head of the Government appealed to everyone to respect “no time and no way as guidelines from authorities” to be able to reduce the risk as much as possible.

“The same is to say so that we can avoid further losses, including losses in human lives, but also material losses that could be exacerbated by not complying with these same guidelines”, he appealed.