Civil protection warns of risk of flooding in the North, Centre, Lisbon and Setúbal
The National Emergency and Civil Protection Authority appealed, this Sunday, for people to protect themselves against the risk of flooding in existing urban areas during the day on Monday and early morning on Tuesday.
In a ‘briefing’ to the media at the beginning of the evening, the national commander, André Fernandes, warned of the possibility, in the face of a heightened sadness, not only “of floods in the rivers, but above all that are the floods in the urban environment “.
“Here is a special notice for what are the urban areas of the northern region, the central region, and Lisbon and Setúbal”, he specified.
Thus, ANEC asks the population to adopt “self-protection measures, in view of the intense forecast [de precipitação] and above all also due to the saturation that the soils have been facing in the last week”.
Therefore, explained Commander André Fernandes, “people must adopt self-protection measures and adjust their driving in the face of the expected adverse weather situation and also monitor what are the most typical areas of having land attitudes and also avoid risky behavior in the line of coast, how to move away and not look for coastal areas”.
They must also clean the water circuits, or even create protection barriers in the houses to prevent water from entering, such as sheets, see for example.
The Civil Protection had already warned this afternoon of the worsening of weather conditions in the next 48 hours, based on forecasts from the Portuguese Institute of the Sea and the Atmosphere that point to “persistent precipitation, wind and maritime flu”.
No warning to the population, and citing information provided by the Portuguese Institute of the Sea and the Atmosphere (IPMA), the National Authority for Emergency and Civil Protection (ANEPC) advanced a forecast of “persistent and sometimes strong precipitation from Monday morning in the North and Center regions, with the most critical period between 9:00 pm on the 19th and 6:00 am on the 20th, especially in the districts of Viana do Castelo, Braga and Porto, and between 00:00 am and 6 am :00 on the 20th in the districts of Vila Real, Viseu, Aveiro and Coimbra”.
The IPMA forecasts do not exclude the occurrence of flu, sometimes strong and persistent, in the remaining districts, estimating that this is “less likely in the South region”.
The meteorological authority also reports “strong wind from the southern quadrant, more intense as of late afternoon today” on the north coast of Cabo Raso and in the highlands, with gusts of around 75 and 80/90 kilometers per hour, respectively. .
At the same time, maritime forecasts are strong with southwest swell of four to five meters on the west coast from 03:00 on Monday until 03:00 on Tuesday.
Citing information provided by the Portuguese Environment Agency, the Civil Protection includes in the notice the possibility of “transmitted variations in hydrometric levels in the historically most found areas”, namely in the Minho basin (in particular Caminha, Monção and Valença); in the Lima basin (Arcos de Valdevez, Ponte da Barca and Ponte de Lima); in the Cávado basin (caniçada and Salamonde, Braga and Barcelos dams); in the Ave basin (Santo Tirso); in the Douro basin (Amarante, Paredes and at the mouth of the Douro); in the Mondego basin (Ceira and Arunca rivers); and in the Vouga basin (Águeda).
“In urban basins and particularly in those where the effect of the tide is felt, the possibility of flooding in historically existing areas cannot be excluded”, he warns.
The intense and persistent rain that fell on Tuesday (the 13th) caused more than 3,000 occurrences, including floods, tree falls and road cuts, affecting mainly the districts of Lisbon, Setúbal, Portalegre and Santarém.
The Civil Protection registered more than 7,950 occurrences in the national territory, including 4,841 floods, and 88 people displaced from 00:00 on the 7th to 08:00 on the 15th.