Portugal Safety and Security Report Wednesday 6^th September 2023

Good morning, Whereas up to around 10 days all the news was on rural fires there has been a sudden change with the arrival of a “cold air drop”, which lived up to its name especially in Spain.

Portugal was indeed fortunate – this time – but what happened in Madrid for instance and other areas of Spain could easily have taken place in Portugal had the positioning of the air mass slightly different.

On Monday and Tuesday severe storms hit Greece after an extended period of wildfires. The devastation in some areas is considerable with over 600 mm of rain in some parts, extensive flooding and cars being washed out to sea. Yesterday’s map of Europe contrasted this with the well above temperatures in the UK and the emergence of another heatwave for some other parts of Europe.

 It is important to bear this in mind for the future, which is one of the reasons why we post the effects and images of such extreme weather phenomena in other countries, simply because it could happen here and we therefore need to be prepared.

One thing is for sure the situation regarding the frequency and intensity of extreme weather conditions is not set to improve, so we really must be aware off the effects and what we can do to reduce the impact on our lives.

 Away from fires and floods we now come to the topic of earthquakes and tsunamis. We have posted on our new Facebook group some information and advice concerning these topics, so people know what to do should this take place. Reminder that Portugal is a moderate risk of earthquakes and although there is little we can do to prevent these, there is much that can be done in preventing the impacts and reducing the loss of life through taking the right action should such a disaster take place.

Coincidentally yesterday there were two small very shallow earthquakes south of the Algarve within 10 hours of each other at 3.9 and 3.7 magnitude respectively. The latter although smaller was felt by more people, being only 35 kilometres from the Algarve coastline.  Being small there were no injuries or damage – BUT what if they had been much larger! Would this have caused damage? Would a Tsunami have resulted? The fact that one of these was at night time when most people were indoors, how would this have impacted on the number of casualties?

These are subject that we may not like to even think about, but we cannot and should not ignore. Knowing what to do in an earthquake and early warning of an approaching tsunami is essential, the latter in particular for those living close to the coastline in certain areas of the Algarve, as well as Cascais and Lisbon. We at Safe Communities will continue to play our role in explaining the risk, but it is up to everyone to be aware of what action to take. In an earthquake “Drop, Cover Hold” and in a tsunami try an immediately move to higher ground.

Turning lastly to the drought situation, as expected there was a drop in water levels in most reservoirs recorded by the National Water Resources Information System at the end of August compared to one month earlier, which is expected in August, but the better news is that the situation has much improved compared to the same month in 2022. However we do need to conserve water as parts of the country are still at severe drought.

So on that slight optimistic note please have a safe week ahead.

News

Vaccination against flu and covid-19 starts on September 29th

Porto, September 5, 2023 (Lusa) – Vaccination against flu and Covid-19 starts “with a bang” on September 29, the executive director of the National Health Service (SNS) announced today.

“The scenario we have on the table is on September 29th to start [with vaccination against influenza and covid-19] with strength and with enormous support from the Portuguese”, said Fernando Araújo at the 2nd Symposium of the World Health Organization Saúde (OMS) dedicated to the digital future, taking place in Porto.

The person in charge, accompanied by the Minister of Health, assumed that vaccination will be “something complex” because it will involve a very wide range of entities from the Ministry of Health.

Vaccination against Covid-19 will take place in health centers simultaneously with the flu, similar to what happened in 2022.

What is new this year is that, for the first time, it will also be possible to administer the vaccine against Covid-19 in community pharmacies that have a vaccine administration service, professionals with specific training in administering vaccines and who express their willingness to participate in the campaign, according to an ordinance published on August 17th in the Diário da República.

These pharmacies will be able to operate longer opening hours, with the list of members available on the websites of the National Health Service, the Directorate-General for Health (DGS) and Infarmed.

According to the ordinance, it will now be up to the DGS to issue the technical guidelines that govern the vaccination process, namely defining the vaccination criteria and eligible users.

Storage Bulletin in Reservoirs in Mainland Portugal – Water volume drops in August compared to July

Lisbon, September 5, 2023 (Lusa) – The volume of water stored decreased in all monitored river basins in Portugal compared to July, according to data from the National Water Resources Information System (SNIRH) for the last day of August. (Left map).  However compared to August 2022 (right map there is a vast improvement)

Of the 60 monitored reservoirs, 11 had water availability greater than 80% of the total volume and 19 less than 40%.

According to SNIRH data available today, at the end of August the Barlavento (8.4%), Sado (21.8%), Arade (28.6%) and Mira (31%) basins had less water availability. 8%).

The Lima basin had the largest volume of water, 86.3% of its capacity, followed by the Douro (79.6%), Cávado (78.7%) and Ave (76.9%).

August 2023 storages by river basin were generally higher than the August storage averages (1990/91 to 2021/22), except for the Sado, Guadiana, Mira, Ribeiras do Algarve and Arade basins.

Each river basin may correspond to more than one reservoir.