A wave of strong winds, described by some witnesses as a hurricane, on Saturday destroyed a camp site and damaged a tourist complex in Albufeira, a town in the Portuguese Algarve region, causing the death of an 85-year-old British woman and the legacy of 28 people, including people in serious condition, as confirmed by the Regional Commander of Civil Protection, Vitor Vaz Pinto.
“Where this phenomenon occurred, great destruction was recorded, taking into account that the camp contains a large number of mobile homes with fragile structures,” Vaz Pinto said. Among the heroes are some Spaniards, although the regional head of civil protection has not confirmed this number.
The weather phenomenon associated with a storm ClaudiaThe event, which lasted several days and affected the Iberian Peninsula, occurred around Saturday morning. The Algarve region, where about 400 incidents were recorded per storm, was one of the worst affected areas, along with the Lisbon metropolitan area and the Setubal peninsula. While the Portuguese Institute of Mar and Atmosphere is still assessing whether the small hurricane can be classified as a hurricane, some measuring points recorded wind bursts of up to 112 kilometers per hour.
With this latest death, there are three deaths due to the storm that passed through Portugal. An 88-year-old couple died together in their home in the town of Seixal due to a flash flood in their home, a low-lying plant located in an area devoid of urbanization. Seniors do not have time to activate an emergency device to alert them of their condition.
Since the arrival of the storm over the past few months, Portugal has recorded about 3,400 accidents this Saturday. In most cases, this is due to flooding and falling trees, according to the National Emergency and Civil Protection Authority. An electrical storm forced a plane belonging to the national airline TAP to return to Lisbon’s Humberto Delgado Airport, shortly after take-off after it suffered a lightning strike that affected one of the engines.
Four regions of the country (Faro, Setubal, Beja and Braga) followed suit on Saturday under an orange warning due to risks associated with persistent flooding and storms. “There is a very high degree of unpredictability, we know that we are in this state of depression, but there cannot be tangible phenomena that would affect them,” the Algarve Regional Civil Protection Commander said, referring to the episode of strong winds that destroyed the Albufeira camp site.
As of Sunday, improvement is expected across the country, but there is still an impact Claudia It will continue due to numerous damages caused by water, mud and wind storms.
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