Calls to postpone presidential election as Storm Leonardo lashes Portugal and Spain | Extreme weather
Heavy rains and strong winds continued to lash parts of Spain and Portugal on Friday, killing at least one person, prompting the evacuation of more than 7,000 people and prompting calls to postpone the second round of Portugal’s presidential election.
Storm Leonardo, which ravaged the Iberian peninsula this week, led the Portuguese government to extend the current state of disaster in 69 municipalities until mid-February.
The storm killed a man in Portugal and left a young girl missing in Spain’s southern Andalusia region. It’s the latest in a series of deadly storms to hit Portugal and Spain in recent weeks, killing scores of people.
Authorities in Andalusia, where more than 7,000 people were forced to flee their homes, evacuated residential areas near the Guadalquivir River in Córdoba overnight due to a dramatic rise in water levels.
In Grazalema, a mountain village popular with hikers, about 1,500 residents were ordered to leave their homes as water seeped through the walls of houses and flowed down steep cobblestone streets.
Juan Manuel Moreno, Andalusia’s regional president, told Cadena Ser radio that groundwater in the Grazalema mountains is full and could lead to landslides due to pent-up pressure. “This can cause large potholes or ditches. If this happens under a house or street, the result can be dramatic,” Moreno said.
He added that geologists were assessing the situation in Grazalema to determine when residents could return to their homes.
Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez was due to visit the hardest-hit parts of Andalusia later Friday.
Heavy rains also affect the olive harvest. Francisco Elvira, who leads the Coag farmers union in Jaén province, estimates the damage so far at €200 million (£174 million).
Spain’s state meteorological office Aemet issued an orange weather warning for coastal areas of the northwestern region of Galicia on Friday; A yellow alert has been issued for other parts of the north coast, the south and east coasts and the Balearic islands.
Aemet spokesman Rubén del Campo said there would be heavier rain on Saturday. “After a slight decline on Friday, Storm Marta will arrive and bring heavy rain and very strong winds on Saturday to areas that have already been very negatively affected by the heavy rains of recent days,” he said.
“Once Storm Marta moves in on Sunday, other weather fronts will arrive, bringing less intense but still significant rainfall to most parts of the peninsula, except for the Mediterranean areas.”
In Porto, Portugal’s second largest city, the Douro River overflowed its banks early Friday, causing minor flooding on riverside cafe terraces. A large part of the town of Alcácer do Sal, on the banks of the Sado River in the south of the country, remained half-submerged for the third day.
Mario Silvestre, commander of Portugal’s ANEPC civil protection service, said six rivers, including the Tagus River, were at serious risk of flooding, adding that Portugal faced the worst threat of flooding along the Tagus in nearly three decades.
The damage and uncertainty brought by the storm have led to calls to postpone the second round of the presidential election on Sunday.
André Ventura, leader of the far-right Chega party, said the vote should be postponed for a week because the poll was “a matter of equality among all Portuguese”.
However, the national election authority said the vote would take place as planned. “A state of emergency, weather warnings or generally unfavorable conditions are not by themselves a sufficient reason to postpone voting in a town or region,” the statement said.
Scientists say human-caused climate disruption has increased the length, intensity and frequency of extreme weather events such as floods and heatwaves that have affected both countries in recent years.
Reuters, Associated Press and Agence France-Presse contributed to this report
