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Around 3,600 people evacuated in Portugal due to risk of Mondego river overflowing
Lisbon.- About 3,600 people have been evacuated preventively this Wednesday in the Portuguese towns of Coimbra, Montemor-o-Velho and Soure, in the center of the country, due to the risk of the Mondego river overflowing, a source from the Portuguese Civil Protection reported.
The officer of the Emergency and Civil Protection Authority (ANEPC) of Portugal, Telmo Ferreira, explained that the situation is “quite complicated”, as there is a risk of the river overflowing “or even the collapse of the protection dikes of those locations”.
In total, 3,580 people have been evacuated, adding to the approximately 1,200 people who remain evacuated in different parts of the country due to the storms of recent weeks, which have caused 7 deaths in Portugal and at least 6 indirect deaths of people who have fallen from roofs while trying to repair them after the storms.
Ferreira specified that the amount of water flowing in the channel, as well as its pressure, can cause “the water to rise too much and go over the dikes”, without necessarily implying a rupture of those infrastructures.
“The next few hours are crucial to understand if the situation is really resolved or if there is a slowdown in the flows. At least during today the situation will be constantly monitored,” he affirmed.
The official pointed out that, in addition to the Mondego, the basins of the Vouga rivers (Aveiro district, south of Porto), Tagus (Santarém district, northeast of Lisbon) and Sado (Setúbal district, southeast of the capital) are at maximum alert level due to the risk of flooding, which have been affected by discharges from reservoirs and “non-stop” rainfall in recent weeks.
The flows of these rivers “decreased yesterday, but today due to the rain they are with quite high flows. Even so, it is not a situation equivalent to that of last week”, explained Ferreira, who assured that they are also constantly monitoring them.
At the national level, the ANEPC recorded 222 incidents last night and early morning, mainly reported in the Lisbon and Tagus Valley regions.
The Portuguese Institute of the Sea and Atmosphere (IPMA) maintains this Wednesday an orange alert (the second highest of a total of 4) for rainfall in nine districts, located on the coast of the north and center of the country.
Also, six others are under a yellow alert for the same reason.
The Portuguese Institute of the Sea and Atmosphere (IPMA) specified in a statement that these weather conditions are due to storm Nils, which is expected to leave “persistent and sometimes heavy rain in the north and central regions, being less intense in the southern region” in Portugal this day.
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