Civil Protection Records More Than 1,200 Incidents As Strong Winds Batter Portugal « Euro Weekly News

Civil Protection Records More Than 1,200 Incidents As Strong Winds Batter Portugal

Image of a person being blown by a very strong wind.

Image of a person being blown by a very strong wind. Credit: photoscgmidt/Shutterstock.com

BEWTEEN 00:00 and 1:30 pm this Thursday, October 19, Civil Protection recorded 1,214 incidents related to bad weather across Portugal.

According to a statement given to the Lusa agency by Elísio Pereira, commander Elísio Pereira, from the National Emergency and Civil Protection Authority (ANEPC), the Lisbon and Tagus Valley regions were the most affected areas, with 519 occurrences.

‘From 12pm until 1:30pm the most affected area was actually Lisbon, with Greater Lisbon recording 155 incidents, followed by the district of Setúbal with 67 incidents’, confirmed Pereira, as reported by noticiasaominuto.com.

These occurrences were essentially floods that affected roads, entrances to garages, basements and stores. Road cleaning teams have been deployed to restore normality, removing fallen debris and a significant number of trees, but without causing any injuries to the general public, he added.

At around 9:30 am, André Fernandes, the national commander of ANEPC, indicated that 955 incidents had been recorded since 00:00, with 90 per cent of them concentrated in the metropolitan areas of Porto and Lisbon.

All districts of mainland Portugal were placed under an orange warning by the Portuguese Institute for Sea and Atmosphere (IPMA) from 6 am today due to the expectation of strong rain, wind and sea disturbances.

With the passage of depression ALINE, the experts predicted that winds blowing from the southwest would gradually become stronger in the Central and Southern regions as the day developed.

Gusts of wind possibly reaching up to 110 km/h were possible the IPMA explained, especially on the coast south of Cape Mondego and including the mountainous regions of the Algarve on the south coast. Extreme wind phenomena could also occur locally they warned.

Rain was forecast to spread across the entire territory from dawn onwards, starting in the North and Central regions increasing in frequency and intensity from the morning onwards.

According to IPMA, maritime conditions could be bad, with waves measuring 4 to 5 metres predicted in the western quadrant. These could increasing to between 5 to 7 metres high, reaching a maximum height of up to 14 metres, and continuing throughout Friday.

On the south coast of the Algarve, waves were expected from the southwest, increasing to between 4 or 4.5 metres during the afternoon.

Heavy rain affected parts of Faro last night and today, with residents paddling in water up to their knees in some areas. Some sections of Faro International Airport were also flooded, according to portugalresident.com.

Written by

Chris King

Originally from Wales, Chris spent years on the Costa del Sol before moving to the Algarve where he is a web reporter for The Euro Weekly News covering international and Spanish national news. Got a news story you want to share? Then get in touch at editorial@euroweeklynews.com

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