Floods trigger motorway collapse, force 3,000 evacuations in Portugal

A section of Portugal’s main A1 motorway collapsed late on February 11 after a levee gave way beneath it, amid weeks of relentless rain and flooding that have battered the country.

Authorities evacuated around 3,000 residents in the northern region as conditions worsened, according to foreign media.

The breach occurred when one of the levees along the River Mondego near the medieval city of Coimbra burst next to a pillar supporting the A1 highway, which links Lisbon and Porto. The failure caused a gap to open in the roadway, which had already been closed by police as a precaution, Coimbra Mayor Ana Abrunhosa said.

“Coimbra and surrounding towns have very serious problems due to floods; some are isolated. The situation is extremely unstable,” Abrunhosa stated.

Prime Minister Luis Montenegro said earlier that authorities were “at the limit of our capacity to contain these waters.”

Since late January, a series of deadly storms has struck mainly central and southern Portugal, tearing roofs from homes, inundating towns and leaving hundreds of thousands of people without electricity for days. At least 15 deaths have been linked to the storms, including indirect fatalities.

Montenegro was in Coimbra, overseeing emergency operations after Interior Minister Maria Lucia Amaral resigned following criticism from opposition parties and local communities over what they described as a slow and ineffective response to Storm Kristin two weeks ago.

Although storm activity eased earlier this week, a meteorological phenomenon known as an “atmospheric river” — a concentrated corridor of tropical moisture — brought renewed heavy rainfall, particularly affecting the north.

Regional Civil Protection official Carlos Tavares warned that heavy rainfall could cause the Aguieira dam, 35 kilometres northeast of Coimbra, “to overflow, sweep away levees and trigger further flooding.” Portugal’s environment agency APA forecast an “exceptional period of peak flows” on the Mondego River through Saturday.

Flooding also damaged part of Coimbra’s ancient hillside city wall, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, forcing road closures and the shutdown of the municipal market. In central Portugal, across the Tagus River from Lisbon, authorities evacuated the village of Porto Brandao due to landslide risks, while about 30 residents were displaced after a landslide in nearby Caparica.

By Tamilla Hasanova