A landslide struck a house and a car this Tuesday, 10th February in Ponte da Barca, a village in the northern Portuguese district of Viana do Castelo, prompting the precautionary evacuation of 20 people. The main access road to the threatened residential area, which also serves neighbouring parishes, has been closed.
“That area is extremely dangerous. People were evacuated from part of the parish, along the line of the landslide and the surrounding area, as a precautionary measure, because the ground is effectively saturated and holding a great deal of water. As heavy rain is expected during the afternoon, Civil Protection considers that residents should spend the night away from their homes,” explained the Mayor of Ponte da Barca, Augusto Marinho.
Marinho added that those evacuated have been gathered at the headquarters of the Crasto Recreational Association and are expected to stay overnight with relatives, having expressed no requirement to be rehoused in the accommodation made available by the local authority.
According to a source from the Viana do Castelo Sub-Regional Emergency and Civil Protection Command, stability assessment work on the affected land has also been suspended for safety reasons. Preventive resources remain on site, however, and operations are continuing to remove earth and debris, mainly on Municipal Road 532, which remains closed. This road had already been shut on Saturday afternoon, due to another landslide.
The response operation involves 15 vehicles and 43 personnel from the Volunteer Fire Brigade, the Municipal Civil Protection Service and the Ponte da Barca GNR, as well as the GNR’s Emergency, Protection and Rescue Unit.
The alert was raised at around 11 a.m. following the trickle of earth from up the hill on Dr Carlos Araújo Street. A sudden mass movement of earth struck a second home, which was unoccupied at the time, as well as a car. The owners were at the scene but were not injured. Initially, three members of a family living next door to the affected house were evacuated. However, given the risk of further landslides in the hilly area, the authorities later decided to evacuate additional residents.
A further landslide was recorded this afternoon in the parish of Nogueira, also in Ponte da Barca, forcing the evacuation of three people and leaving an unoccupied house at risk of collapse.
According to the commander of the Ponte da Barca Volunteer Fire Brigade, Carlos Veloso, this was another landslide, reported at around 3 p.m., at a location “around 500 to 600 metres away in a straight line”, near the boundary with the village of São Martinho de Crasto.
“We are on site working with three machines. There is also an uninhabited house at risk of collapsing, and another house further down that was hit by the landslide and has had its basement completely destroyed. The upper part is intact, but there is a risk of further landslides, so we are diverting the watercourse to prevent it from flowing towards the area,” Commander Veloso said. He added that “three people were evacuated” from the affected house, “located about 50 metres below” the one at risk of collapse. The three residents will be rehoused with family members.
Source: DN
