Azores Situation Report Wednesday 14^th June 2023

 

By our correspondent in Axores

Access to Lagoa do Fogo in the Azores is now done on a ‘shuttle’ basis.

Access to Lagoa do Fogo, on the island of São Miguel, will be made, from Thursday, through a ‘shuttle’ transport service, announced today the regional secretary for Tourism, Mobility and Infrastructure.

 

According to Berta Cabral, the ‘shuttle’ will be free for residents and will cost five euros for non-residents.

The minister signed today, in Ponta Delgada, the contract for the award of the ‘shuttle’ service to the company Atlanticoenergy.

This shuttle service to Lagoa do Fogo will leave from Caldeira Velha, in the municipality of Ribeira Grande, and end at Casa da Água, in Lagoa, then take the opposite route.

Along the way, the ‘shuttle’ passes through six points of tourist attraction, added Berta Cabral.

This transport will operate on a ‘hop on hop off’ basis, will cover about 14 kilometres, from 09:00 to 19:00, every day of the week, including national, regional or municipal holidays, up to 30 of September.

Berta Cabral also announced that tickets will be purchased through a digital platform and that ‘rent-a-car’ cars will no longer circulate on the road between Caldeira Velha (Ribeira Grande) and Casa da Água (Lagoa).

The aim is for these rented vehicles to park in the existing car parks in the area and for passengers to use the ‘shuttle’ to reach Lagoa do Fogo.

The Caldeira Velha car park (101 spaces) and the car park next to Casa da Água (60 spaces) were increased by another 30 spaces each.

The use of the car park at the Lagoa do Fogo viewpoint (48 spaces) will remain free for the first 20 minutes and subject to payment in the following periods, with a total of around 200 parking spaces available.

Passage of Óscar depression causes 59 occurrences and landslide cut access to Ribeira Quente.

The Civil Protection of the Azores raised to 59 the number of occurrences recorded today, following the passage of the Óscar depression, including a landslide that completely obstructed the access road to the parish of Ribeira Quente, in São Miguel.

According to a statement released at 21:00, the Azores Regional Civil Protection and Fire Service (SRPCBA) said that the 59 occurrences, recorded since dawn today, were “all on the island of São Miguel, in the municipalities of Ponta Delgada, Lagoa, Vila Franca do Campo and Povoação”.

“The situations reported are related, above all, to falling trees, falling structures, landslides, floods and obstructed roadways”, highlighted the SRPCBA, which reported 23 more incidents since the last balance sheet.

At the end of the afternoon, there was a landslide that completely obstructed the access road to the parish of Ribeira Quente, with “clearing work in the affected area” being ongoing, stressed the Civil Protection of the Azores.

“In the municipalities of Povoação and Nordeste, mobile and fixed communications are already restored in both municipalities”, added the same source.

The islands of São Miguel and Santa Maria are under yellow warning until 06:00 on Wednesday, due to forecasts of rain, sometimes heavy, which could be accompanied by thunderstorms.

The Portuguese Institute of the Sea and the Atmosphere (IPMA) had also issued yellow warnings for those two islands because of the wind (north quadrant direction) until 21:00 today.

For the central group (Terceira, Graciosa, São Jorge, Pico and Faial), the IPMA issued yellow warnings, until 00:00 on Wednesday, due to rain that could be heavy accompanied by thunderstorms.

A yellow warning was also issued for those five islands, taking into account the wind, in a northeasterly direction, between 09:00 today and 00:00 on Wednesday.

The yellow warning, the third most serious on the scale, is issued in “risky situations for certain activities dependent on the weather situation”.

 

Cleaning on the Ribeira Quente road completed in the next 15 days.

The Secretary for Tourism, Mobility and Infrastructure of the Government of the Azores said today that the next 15 days will be enough to clean the access road to the parish of Ribeira Quente, the target of landslides last week.

“Cleaning is a continuous job. When it’s over, it’s over. The next 15 days will certainly be enough”, Berta Cabral told journalists on the Ribeira Quente road, in the municipality of Povoação, the only access route to the parish located on the south coast of São Miguel.

On June 7th, that road was closed to traffic for about 15 hours, due to a landslide, forcing 50 people to spend the night in a social centre.

The road was blocked around 15:20 (16:20 in Lisbon) on Tuesday, following a large landslide, and was only reopened to traffic at 06:20 the following day.

Berta Cabral highlighted that the cleaning work will include the “removal of looser materials that constitute a danger”, through the provocation of controlled landslides.

“We must clean up. The work is gigantic. The means, those that are necessary, are all mobilized. There have already been inspections by ‘drone’ and there are materials that we are going to try to remove due to a fall instead of waiting for new landslides. We will have the collaboration of specialized teams”, she stressed.

“As for the semi-tunnel, from the point of view of its design, it strictly fulfilled the objective of protecting it from all landslides that occurred in that area. There were no obstacles or obstructions to traffic in the area. It was a little further ahead. We also have to find a solution for the other part of the section”.

The “solution” could involve “extending” that semi-tunnel that is in the final stages of construction and whose assignment took place in 2021.