Portugal Safety and Security Report Wednesday 19^th February 2025

Good morning. The earthquake that occurred on Monday 17th February close to Lisbon is once again a wake-up call that we need in Portugal to be aware of the risk of earthquakes and be prepared. Although it was a borderline moderate magnitude earthquake, it was felt by many people as far as 300 kilometres from the epicentre, primarily along the south coast of the Algarve. Thankfully there are no reports, however, of injuries or damaged caused.

There were many reports being made to IPMA using their reporting link, but within minutes the IPMA website and Facebook had become inaccessible. This made it difficult to obtain vital information including the “Shake map”. Through some quick research, however, we found the map on the site of the USCG seismic monitoring organisation and were able to post this on our FB page within 18 minutes of the quake along with relevant information. The ANEPC published information 3 minutes before us and IPMA on Twitter 5 minutes before us, but neither used the Shake Map.

The IPMA responded in a statement that the IPMA website was inaccessible for a few minutes due to “an exceptionally high volume of traffic”, following the earthquake. It added that “an investment of 4.5 million euros is already planned, under the PRR [Recovery and Resilience Plan] and the State Budget, to reinforce the energy and IT network, as well as the geophysical/seismic monitoring and tsunami early warning infrastructure, which will also make it possible to overcome the constraints observed”.

And, in the event of the site being overloaded, as was the case on Monday, or a malfunction, a simplified version is made available, with essential information on all the institute’s notices.(Comment – but in our opinion NOT ALL essential information).

However, the organisation Citizens for Cybersecurity movement regretted the situation stating that the movement had already pointed out weaknesses in the infrastructure of the IPMA website, which in a major emergency situation of a potential major earthquake, “the IPMA systems will not be resilient to the increase in access”, assuming that the mobile and internet networks were able to resist.

Unfortunately, this is the second time the IPMA website has become inaccessible during an earthquake the first time being in August last year during the 5.3 mag quake off Sines. It is vital that steps are taken to address this problem.

 

We hope that learning from this, ways can be found to avoid outages of essential communication channels, such as Facebook, during major events due to a sudden far higher demand.

In monitoring social media we found that a certain meteorological group, with a very large following, had entitled this event in capitals as a “Breaking News Strong earthquake felt in Lisbon.”  Such sensationalism in a headline would ring alarm bells and in any event was not true. We brought it to the attention of the page admin and I thank them for removing the word “strong”. In fact at 4.7 magnitude it was borderline “slight/moderate”.  It is not a case of being pedantic as accuracy in reporting matters such as this is vitally important for obvious reasons. In fact a strong Mag 6 earthquake (which is the lowest magnitude for this category) would be 90 times stronger that a 4.7 earthquake so you can imaging the affect that a strong earthquake could have on a populated area, plus the threat of a tsunami.

If anyone needs further convincing, the 1969 Mag 7.8 earthquake which caused consider damage and 13 deaths in the Algarve, had an intensity 44,668 times stronger than the 4.7 Mag earthquake on Monday, which was felt 300 kms away.  So one can only imaging the impact of strong or major earthquakes!

In Portugal the A Terra Treme earthquake awareness exercise is held one year on 5^th November to help people be prepared for earthquakes and to practice the action to take in other words “Drop Cover Hold”. We feel that reminding people once a year is not enough and our strategy at Safe Communities is to remind people at periodic intervals throughout the year also using overseas earthquakes as examples.

There is also a need to focus attention more, we feel, on the fact that when an earthquake occurs people maybe outdoors or driving etc so know what action to take in these situations is  important. We feel there should be more education on this topic as well as guidelines to help those who suffer from a disability such impaired vision or a mobility disability. We will be reflecting this to the ANEPC.

Now some good news regarding to the drought situation. January 2025 was the 2nd wettest since 2000 (wettest was 2001, 254.2 mm); a total precipitation of 190.3 mm was recorded, which corresponds to 181% of the average value 1991-2020. This resulted in a significant decrease in the area and intensity of meteorological drought, with only the coast of Alentejo and the Western Algarve in the weak drought class. So, at the end of January, only 6% of the mainland was in meteorological drought (weak class), compared with over 50% at the end of December 2024.

Our team at Safe Communities wishes you a safe and happy week ahead.

News

Marcelo insists that Europe must be considered in negotiations to end the war in Ukraine

Marcelo argues that there cannot be “understandings, however good they may be, between two or three so-called major powers” about the war in Ukraine, without “Europe being present”.

The President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, insisted this Monday that Europe must be considered in the negotiations to end the war in Ukraine, stating that, “in total, it contributed more than its North American partner”.

The head of state was speaking to journalists at the Royal Portuguese Hospital of Beneficence, in Recife, where he arrived on Sunday for an official visit to Brazil, in connection with the meeting called by the French President, Emmanuel Macron.

Asked about what he expects from this meeting with the participation of some heads of government of European countries, the president of the European Commission, the president of the European Council and the secretary general of NATO, in Paris, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa did not want to “make wishes”.

“But what seems clear to me is the following:  the world without Europe is poorer, the balance of power without Europe is not as balanced,” he said.

The President of the Republic stated that the war in Ukraine “is a global war, but one that is taking place in Europe and has to do with Europe’s security, and in which Europe, although not as much as the United States in terms of weapons, has contributed more overall than its North American partner”.

Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa therefore argued that there cannot be “understandings, however good they may be, between two or three so-called major powers” ​​about the war in Ukraine, without “Europe being present, being considered, having an active voice, and not being treated as a minor matter”.

“Much that exists in the world would not exist without Europe,” he added.

Asked about the absence of Portuguese representation at this meeting in Paris, with the participation of the heads of government of Germany, the United Kingdom, Italy, Poland, Spain, the Netherlands and Denmark, the head of state responded that this happens “for a very simple reason”.

“The idea was European institutions, the five largest states, in the sense of the largest economies and the greatest contribution in terms of what will be discussed, and then with the addition of two countries, one of which obviously has a very particular involvement, which is Denmark, for reasons that are public and well-known, and another that has also followed transatlantic relations very closely and with great involvement”, he explained.

According to the President of the Republic, as far as Portugal is concerned, the important thing is to understand the following: “We, the Portuguese, are faithful to our allies, faithful to our partners, faithful to our friends . We like our allies, our partners and friends to be faithful to us, we Portuguese and we Europeans.”

Mayor of Faro and councillor tried for alleged violation of urban planning rules

The Public Prosecutor’s Office requests that the additional penalty of prohibition from exercising public office be applied to Rogério Bacalhau and Sophie Matias for serious disrespect of the duties of a public servant.

The mayor of Faro, Rogério Bacalhau, and councilor Sophie Matias will be tried for the crime of violating urban planning rules, according to the indictment relating to the case, to which Lusa had access.

At issue is the licensing of a project to build a motorhome park in the parish of Montenegro, next to Faro Airport, on agricultural land covered by the Vilamoura-Vila Real de Santo António Coastal Development Plan (POOC).

In the indictment, dated October 2023, the Public Prosecutor’s Office (MP) requests that the additional penalty of prohibition from exercising public office be applied to the two mayors, alleging that their conduct “reveals a clear and serious disregard for the duties inherent to the functions performed”.

In addition to the mayors, the head of the Urban Management Division and the director of the Infrastructure and Urban Planning Department of Faro City Council at the time of the events, a commercial company and its manager and the coordinator of the architectural and specialist project for the work were also named as defendants.

After the charges were brought, all the defendants requested that an investigation be opened, with the mayor claiming, at that stage of the proceedings, that he “did not commit any crime” and that he had only granted the issuance of the building permit “based on favourable technical opinions”.

However the Public Prosecutor’s Office stated that, “it is quite evident that “all the defendants knew that the property […] is located in an area where construction is prohibited and yet, they wanted the Motorhome Service Area to be built, aware of the non-compliance with the applicable regulations”.