The anemometer at Monte Real air base in Leiria stopped at 178km/h, then died. That reading, taken as Storm Kristin came ashore in Portugal on 28 January, is the highest gust officially recorded on the country’s west coast. Five people lost their lives in the storm.
The government called it an “extreme climatic event.” Wind of 150km (95 miles) per hour, heavy rain and flooding hit the central and northern regions, and civil protection authorities counted more than 3,000 weather-related incidents in the first reports. One later tally from The Portugal Post put emergency callouts at 8,160.
Who died
The deaths were scattered. An 85-year-old woman in Silves was swept away when her car slid off a flooded back road. In Vila Franca de Xira, a falling pine crushed a car and killed the driver. Two people died in Carvide, in the Leiria district: one hit by a sheet of flying metal, the other trapped under a collapsed roof. The fifth was a construction worker in Fonte Oleiro, who suffered cardiac arrest after being struck by debris on an unfinished building.
Another man had died over the weekend, before Kristin arrived, when floodwater carried off his car during an earlier storm.
Lights out, roads shut
More than 850,000 people lost power on Wednesday, according to the distributor E-Redes. In Leiria District alone, crews flew drones along 680 km of snapped lines and replaced 46 broken pylons and three substations. Water pumps in Coimbra faltered and tankers had to supply some neighbourhoods.
The main motorway linking Lisbon to the north and several rail lines were blocked with debris. In Figueira da Foz, a Ferris wheel overturned. Schools shut in towns from Obidos to Figueira da Foz. Ten coastal areas went under a red warning for waves forecast to reach up to 14m (45ft, 11in).
Leiria’s mayor, Goncalo Lopes, asked the government to declare a state of emergency. “We have public spaces turned upside down,” he told reporters. “It’s something that will require a very large recovery effort in the coming months. The impact is similar to what a bomb could mean in our city, with massive destruction.”
Prime Minister Luis Montenegro offered condolences to the victims’ families and said authorities were assessing the damage and would take “whatever measures are necessary.”
The money question
The Portugal Post reported preliminary damage of €500 M in the Pombal area alone, with national losses expected to climb far higher. The government declared a state of calamity in 60 municipalities and is courting the EU Solidarity Fund. CGD and Novo Banco announced €400 M in low-interest credit lines, and the Agriculture Ministry opened grants of up to €400 000 per farmer.
Kristin then crossed into Spain, bringing snow, rain and strong winds. In Andalusia, emergency services reported some 2,000 weather-related incidents.
Sources
- At least five killed after Storm Kristin hits Portugal
- Storm Kristin Hits Portugal: 5 Dead, 8,000 Emergencies
