Destroyed commerce and thousands of threats threatened after floods in Lisbon
António Pedro Santos / Lusa
Commerce is one of the main victims of the floods in Lisbon. There are still hundreds of thousands of threats threatened by the floods in the Tagus.
The president of the Portuguese Confederation of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (CPPME) warns that the floods of recent days were “disastrous” for local businesses.
With Christmas at the door, thousands of micro-enterprises were shaken by the floods, warned Jorge Pisco, in statements to Renaissance Radio🇧🇷
“If some of these companies already had a rope in their throats, because of the pandemic and survival, now the situation is really dramatic”I shoot.
The president of CPPME asks the Government “urgent and immediate” support to help these companies. Pisco underlined that the Government “has money from the State Budget to help these companies”, even before considering using European funds.
“In other crises, the Government will wait to see what happens. And then he says that he has lines of credit and that he is making a great effort in solidarity, when he is not doing it”, he added.
The mayor of Lisbon, Carlos Moedas, announced this Tuesday that he intends to create a fund of at least 3 million euros to support traders and individuals who hedge losses in bad weather.
“I will propose to the City Council a fund to help these people of at least 3 million euros. I’m doing the math. It is important that people know that the City Council will act quickly. We have to help people right now, because exactly we don’t have the structural solution”, said the mayor in an interview with TVI🇧🇷
Although the leadership of the Lisbon Chamber wants to continue with this support, Carlos Moedas recognized that this is “insufficient” and defended the need for the Government to be quick with the support it will provide. “The government has to help now. It has to be fast”appealed.
In the interview, the mayor again underlined that the phenomena of enormous rainfall that occurred at dawn today and at the end of last week “are very difficult to predict” and that the structural solution to mitigate their effects will be the construction of two tunnels drainage.
“The only solution is drainage tunnels🇧🇷 Three months ago, in some speeches, I was talking about the drainage tunnels. People didn’t listen, sometimes, because that was something invisible”, he manifested.
As he explained, the idea is to build a tunnel between the Monsanto and Santa Apolónia areas and between Chelas and Beato, preventing water from reaching the lower areas of the city of Lisbon.
Until this structural solution is integrated, the mayor of Lisbon admits that the only way to prevent accidents is to allow people to stay at home, arguing that companies must be prepared for this situation.
435 thousand jobs threatened
The floods in the region surrounding the Tagus and the Ribeiras do Oeste could affect around 435,000 jobsaccording to newspaper🇧🇷 The information is contained in the Risk Management Plan for Floods in the Tagus and Ribeiras do Oeste – 2nd Cycle (2022-2027), by the Portuguese Environment Agency.
In the area of the Tagus and Ribeiras do Oeste, which covers 103 municipalities, “floods assume a special sanctuary due to the extension of the area subject to flooding, but also for the protection of urban centers subject to this type of occurrence”, the document reads.
In addition to impacting hundreds of thousands of jobs, it will impact more than 119 thousand deals🇧🇷 O business it’s the tourism are the main guests.
However, the measures announced in 2016 to minimize this type of situation had, in December 2020, an implementation rate of 45%.
Workers with justified absences
According to jurists consulted by the Público newspaper, workers who find themselves unable to get to work due to bad weather should have the absence justified and without loss of remuneration.
Article 249 considers justified absence “motivated by the impossibility of performing work due to a fact not attributable to the worker, namely compliance with a medical prescription following the use of a medically assisted procreation technique, illness, accident or compliance with a legal obligation”.
Although specific bad weather situations are not mentioned, they seem to fit in this article.
On the other hand, as schools Lisbon remained open, but “within the scope of their autonomy they can decide to close”confirmed a source from the Ministry of Education’s communication office.
All districts in mainland Portugal are under yellow warning from 9:00 am this Wednesday due to the forecast of showers, sometimes heavy and accompanied by a thunderstorm, according to the Portuguese Institute of the Sea and the Atmosphere (IPMA). Meanwhile, the situation in Lisbon is not famous.
Civil Protection registered 2,992 occurrences between 00:00 and 22:30 on Tuesday, with almost half occurring in the Lisbon district, mainly floods.
“At the moment things are calmer, although there are many operations still to work given the number of occurrences, namely flooding in garages, caves and other places that require many hours of work”, commander José Rodrigues, from the National Emergency and Civil Protection Authority (ANEPC) told Lusa. ). 🇧🇷
Meteorological stations in the Lisbon region recorded between Monday and today “the highest values” of precipitation in mainland Portugal, indicated the IPMA.
“In relation to the amount of precipitation in short periods (one hour, three hours, six hours and 12 hours), the meteorological stations in the greater Lisbon region stand out, in which the highest values in the mainland were recorded”, said the official. IPMA.
This morning was calmer, but a new meteorological worsening is expected todayfrom 9am until 6pm, with persistent and occasional heavy rain.
According to IPMA forecasts, the temperature should remain at least until the weekend, and on Thursday the whole country should leave the yellow state.
Daniel Costa, ZAP // Portuguese