Bad weather causes one death, 21 injuries in Portugal

LISBON, Jan. 20 (Xinhua) -- Strong gusts and heavy rains have caused one dead, 21 injured and 46 people losing their homes in Portugal at the weekend.

Between Friday morning and Saturday night Portugal has been under a red weather alert, the highest in the scale. Winds reached 120 km per hour resulting from more than 9,000 emergency calls with the highest number reported in capital Lisbon.

The violent winds caused one dead and 21 injured, according to the Civil Protection National Authority. Local press said that the deceased was a 85-year-old man and died with head injures after falling to the ground pushed by a gate brought down by the strong wind.

According to media reports, damage reported by farmers reached over 6 million euros (about 8 million U.S. dollars) and five regions in the country are still suffering power cuts.

On Sunday the wind has been continuing to blow hard and the rains have not stopped although the severe weather alerts have gone down to green indicating no danger in most of the country.

Three regions in the north including Povoa do Varzim, Vila do Conde and Esposende reported damages over 5 million euros, according to a farmer's association speaker interviewed by TSF news radio. In the west agricultural damage may reach 1 million euros, according to the daily Publico.

The bad weather has also caused problems in the power supply and public transport sectors.

Five regions in the country -- Aveiro, Castelo Branco, Leiria, Coimbra and Santarem -- continued Sunday without electricity. The situation should return normal until the end of Sunday, according to Maria Antonia Fonseca, speaker of the power company EDP. Though, in an interview with the news radio TSF, she added that the work ahead would still be complicated.

The Portuguese railway company CP keeps in place on Sunday a warning about possible delays due to obstructed lines.

Strong winds caused changes in the final destination of at least 33 flights heading to Portugal on Saturday. Bad weather in other European cities also led to more delayed and canceled flights on Sunday.

The access to some marine ports was also suspended during the weekend.

The Civil Protection National Authority registered 6,018 incidents caused by falling trees and 2,425 caused by falling debris. The rains have also caused 534 flood occurrences and 279 landslides. (1 euro = 1.33 U.S. dollars)

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