By Miguel Pereira and Pedro Nunes
POMBAL, Portugal, Feb 3 (Reuters) – A new storm threatened Portugal and Spain with further flooding and damage from Tuesday, only a week after the deadly Storm Kristin destroyed homes, factories and critical infrastructure.
The Portuguese Institute of the Sea and the Atmosphere (IPMA) expects the new storm, named Leonardo, to hit mainland Portugal from Tuesday until Saturday and Spain from Wednesday.
The Iberian Peninsula has experienced a succession of storms bringing heavy rain, thunder, snow and strong gales in the last few months, with southern Spain facing what some residents said was its wettest winter in 40 years.
IPMA said Leonardo may bring persistent and at times heavy rain, with wind gusts reaching up to 75 km/h (47 mph) along the coast south of Cabo Mondego in Portugal’s central region, and 95 km/h in the highlands.
However, the gusts should be less intense than those exceeding 200 km/h which were unleashed by Storm Kristin since last Wednesday, among the strongest winds on record in Portugal and have resulted in six deaths in the country.
Daniela Fraga, deputy commander of national emergency and civil protection authority ANEPC, told reporters late on Monday that heavy rain in the coming days could lead to floods, mainly in the regions affected by Storm Kristin.
RECOVERY ‘COULD TAKE YEARS’
Portugal’s Prime Minister Luis Montenegro, on a visit to affected factories in the central town of Pombal, said it could take years for factories, public equipment, roads and railways damaged by the storm to fully recover.
“It was a calamity that affected us… it has already rained a lot, it will continue to rain, and there are many losses,” Montenegro told reporters.
Nearly 115,000 households were still without electricity, around 85,000 of them in the Leiria region in the centre of Portugal, power distribution company E-Redes said.
In Spain, weather authorities warned of intense and persistent rainfall across the south of the country.
In the Grazalema mountains, accumulated rainfall could exceed 200-250 mm in 24 hours. Officials have issued alerts for severe flood risk due to rising river levels.
Authorities in the southern Andalusia region suspended most classes for Wednesday, urged residents to avoid non‑essential travel and asked for Spain’s military emergency unit be on standby in case it is needed.
(Reporting by Sergio Goncalves in Portugal and Emma Pinedo in Madrid; Editing by Hugh Lawson and Alexander Smith)
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