Another very difficult week ahead for Portugal, with continued storms, more rain, strong seas, highlands, rivers are bursting now, and flooding is becoming a major problem.
The Algarve will be the hardest hit in the coming days with depression Marta.
Thousands of people are also cancelling holidays from the UK after UK gov put out warnings to check before travel.
Let’s not forget these storms contine through Spain and Italy, hitting the same areas time and time again. No stop in sight for the next two weeks at least either.
The state of emergency will be extended again in mainland Portugal for another seven days, from Sunday until February 15, due to continued bad weather, the Prime Minister announced today.
“We know that we will still have a difficult situation that will prolong the conditions that justified precisely this state of emergency,” said Luís Montenegro, in a statement at the official residence in São Bento, Lisbon, after the weekly meeting of the Council of Ministers and after meeting with the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, in Lisbon.
In addition to extending the state of emergency, the Government decided to declare a state of contingency “in areas with a higher risk of flooding,” which is the intermediate level in the Civil Protection Framework Law, lower than a state of emergency and higher than an alert.
“We thus guarantee, in fact, the continued mobilization of all civil protection resources, firefighters, the military, security forces, health departments, social security, psychological support, forest firefighters, and local authorities. Only together, with the absolutely invaluable contribution of all these members, and also of many people, many volunteers, only with this joint effort is it possible to face an adversity like the one we have ahead of us,” declared the Prime Minister.
Due to the bad weather, the Government initially declared a state of emergency in mainland Portugal between January 28 and February 1 for approximately 60 municipalities, later extending it until February 8 for 68 municipalities, and today it has been extended again until February 15.