December storms cost Lisbon €49M in damages

  • Lusa
  • 5 January 2023

The municipality has also decided to provide €740,000 to support local businesses affected by the storms in the capital through the Recuperar + | Programme.

The City of Lisbon has recorded “a total loss of €49 million” after heavy rains between 7 and 14 December, the mayor of Lisbon, Carlos Moedas, said on Thursday, appealing for help from the government.

In a press conference in Lisbon, Carlos Moedas detailed the total amount of damages caused by the bad weather in December, in which €34 million (70%) corresponded to damage to the city’s equipment and public infrastructures and €15 million (30%) is related to damages in economic activities, commerce and services and private houses.

Highlighting the support of the municipality to deal with the damage in the city, a total of about €3 million for families and economic activities, the Lisbon mayor stressed that “maximum help” is needed from the government, hoping that the “enormous instability” in the national executive “does not affect the speed” of support.

Among the €15 million of damage to private property, €3.8 million was recorded in housing, with 279 registered situations, and €11.2 million in economic activities (shops and companies), with 338 occurrences, according to data presented by the mayor.

Regarding public goods, with damages amounting to €34 million, there are damages to municipality equipment, with 112 occurrences, amounting to €24.3 million;  parish council equipment, with 47 situations, amounting to €3.5 million; to city hall infrastructures, with 103 cases, accounting for €3.4 million; and in parish council infrastructure, with 45 records, amounting to €2.6 million.

In this context, Carlos Moedas highlighted the support of the municipality to help the economic activities and families of the city affected by the two events that occurred in December and that “corresponded to the 100-year rains, that is, the probability of those rains happening in Lisbon was the probability of happening only every 100 years, they happened twice in one week.

Municipal support is available by filling in forms on the Lisbon Câmara website: https://www.lisboa.pt/recuperarmais/.

On 21 December, the Lisbon City Council approved the allocation of a total of €2.26 million to Caritas Diocesana de Lisboa and the Portuguese Red Cross to support owners or tenants of homes affected by the recent storms in the city, which provides “financial support of €1,000 per household”, an amount that increases to €2,000 whenever the family includes elderly people (over 65 years old) or children and young people (under 18 years old).

The municipality has also decided to provide €740,000 to support local businesses affected by the storms in the capital through the Recuperar + | Programme of Support to Local Commerce, which translates into “the attribution of a financial contribution of 20% of the value of the repair, acquisition of equipment, replacement of damaged stock or necessary works (excluding VAT) up to a maximum limit of €10,000 per applicant.

To survey the damage caused by the bad weather, between 14 and 21 December, Lisbon City Hall made forms available on the municipality’s website, via https://www.lisboa.pt/levantamento-danos, for individuals, businessmen, catering entrepreneurs and associations to register the damage to homes and economic activities.

Several mainland districts, particularly Lisbon, were affected by heavy rains in December, with significant flooding, dozens of people were made homeless, and millions of euros in damages.

On 9 December, to assess the impact of the floods recorded between 7 and 8 December, the government met with 11 of the 18 municipalities of the Metropolitan Area of Lisbon (AML): the nine on the north bank of the River Tagus – Amadora, Cascais, Lisbon, Loures, Mafra, Odivelas, Oeiras, Sintra and Vila Franca de Xira – and two on the south bank – Seixal and Almada.

At that time, the government announced it would support the municipalities affected by the bad weather in December, with the municipalities having to survey the damage by 15 January at the latest.

Since then and so far, Loures has accounted for a total of €32 million in damages from the bad weather in December, Oeiras has added €19 million (damage to private homes is still to be accounted for), Cascais has indicated around €18.2 million, Odivelas has announced around €7 million and Amadora has suggested around t€2wo million.