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Storm Charles Passes Portugal After Nationwide Shutdown, With No Casualties Reported
By Maya Wilson
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Storm Charles swept across Portugal on Wednesday after first striking Madeira with powerful winds, but the worst of the weather had passed by mid-afternoon without severe damage or any reported casualties, according to reporting by Al Jazeera and Reuters carried by CNA.
The storm brought winds of up to 130 kilometres per hour (81 mph) to Madeira on Tuesday before reaching mainland Portugal on Wednesday, November 11. Portugal’s weather agency, IPMA, recorded gusts above 120 km/h in some areas.
IPMA said the storm’s eye split in two over the Atlantic, weakening Charles before it arrived through the southern Algarve region. A red alert, the country’s highest emergency warning, had initially covered more than half of Portugal. By mid-afternoon, only the Algarve remained under the highest-level alert.
The government had taken unusually broad precautions before the storm arrived, ordering all schools nationwide to close. About 8,000 schools cancelled classes in what the reporting described as the first such closure in living memory. Non-essential public services were also shut, people were told to remain at home, and emergency services and army units were placed on alert.
Operations were shut at four international airports, while hundreds of supermarkets closed. The Web Summit technology conference in Lisbon, Portugal, which had about 70,000 attendees, cancelled its Wednesday events.
More than 300 flights in and out of Portugal were cancelled by the later counts, after earlier wire reports had put the number above 200.
Prime Minister Luís Montenegro chaired a crisis unit involving eight government ministers. Interior Minister Luís Neves rejected suggestions that authorities had overreacted, saying the response had followed the forecast.
By Wednesday afternoon, the heavy rain and strongest winds had passed without severe damage being reported. Civil Protection Commander Mario Silvestre said authorities had registered 538 incidents since midnight.
In Lisbon, some streets flooded and road tunnels were mostly closed. On Madeira, emergency services rescued a man who was swept away after water flooded his garage.
The pre-emptive shutdown followed criticism of the government’s response to earlier storms this year. January’s Storm Kristin felled thousands of trees, while a man died in flooding after February’s Storm Leonardo. The government moved more aggressively ahead of Charles as forecasts warned of dangerous conditions.
The storm was expected to move into Spain, where the national weather service, AEMET, warned of a “serious or very serious” impact.
In Piedralaves in central Spain, authorities maintained the evacuation of more than 3,000 people who had been removed from their homes on Tuesday because of the risk that a local dam could overflow.
Portugal and Spain had already been hit by heavy rain from Storm Bruna since Sunday.
— Maya Wilson, World Desk
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