The heavy rains that have been falling in the last week in various parts of Portugal have left «many areas» of Lisbon «in a state of calamity», in the words of its mayor, Carlos Moedas.
«We have many areas of the city that are in a state of catastrophe,» said Moedas, although he specified that this is an «informal» definition and therefore it is not planned for now to decree a state of calamity in the capital.
Moedas explained that only six days have passed since the problems caused by the previous inclement weather, so the current situation is a sort of «catastrophe in the informal sense of the word», although he recognizes that for the affected Lisbon citizens it really is.
«We have never lived so quickly and so often that from one week to the next the same situation occurred with this same violence», the mayor of the Portuguese capital lamented, in declarations to the TSF radio station.
As a result of the heavy rains that fell during the night, many arteries of the capital are impassable, the public service has been interrupted and the Lisbon subway, although it works, does so with restrictions on some lines.
Due to the traffic problems, Moedas has asked the citizens of Lisbon to limit travel to a minimum and to stay at home during the periods when the rains are expected to continue to fall heavily.
Despite the red alert warning, the streets cut off, the «difficult» situation being experienced and some «significant material damage», Moedas stressed that no injuries have been reported as a result of the rains.
While some people have had to be evicted from their homes due to the floods that have occurred, some others have been trapped due to landslides that have been recorded in certain neighborhoods of Lisbon.
«This unpredictability of weather events are a reality and therefore we must be on constant alert,» Moedas has called for.
