Albuquerque: Regional Government will be on prevention and calls for serenity

O president of the Madeira Regional Government, Miguel Albuquerque, said today that the executive will be in prevention in the coming hours due to the worsening of weather conditions in the archipelago, calling for serenity, because these are “recurrent” phenomena in the region.

“ We're in prevention. The [Regional] Government will not stay at home, will work in the next (...) hours”, said the chief executive in the Presidency of the Regional Government.

Miguel Albuquerque said: “Let’s take it easy, calm, everything will be fine.”.

The insular ruler argued that Madeira will have, from 21:00, a situation of “great rainfall and strong winds”, which is not an “unpredicted” scenario.

“ We've had a lot of these situations, it's recurring. What we need is for people to be careful, to avoid circulations, not to leave home for what is not essential, to have calm and serenity. I think it will go well”, he stressed.

Albuquerque rejected the accusation that the Government of Madeira was late in announcing measures compared to what happened at national level.

“ This morning we held a Civil Protection meeting, with all operational forces and all fundamental requirements and decided, in the face of the worsening of the situation at night and at dawn, to close the non-essential services of the morning and the schools, for reasons of prevention ", said.

The president of the Regional Government also stressed that “the idea is to have the smallest number of people on the public road”, for preventive reasons.

“ We had already arranged this meeting. Weather factors are often found closer to the event and we have to be careful to make decisions based on what is the concrete reality and the most reliable data. We need some proximity in terms of time horizon so we can make the right decisions,” he said.

As for the measures to be taken by private individuals, Miguel Albuquerque, indicated that people and companies should take their decision “according to the evolution of time”, and should be able to “prevent the movement of their employees or avoid the physical integrity of people and goods”.

“ Right now we don't need to make any alarms. We must have some sense of responsibility”, he emphasized.

The southern coast and the mountainous regions of Madeira will be starting at 9:00 p.m. under red warning, the most serious, due to the forecast of rain, sometimes strong and persistent, according to the IPMA.

According to the Portuguese Institute of the Sea and Atmosphere (IPMA), the red warning will be in effect between 9:00 p.m. today and 6:00 p.m. on Wednesday, then the orange until 09:00.

The mountainous regions of Madeira Island will also be with red warning because of the strong wind with gusts up to 140 kilometers per hour between 00:00 and 06:00 on Wednesday.

The north coast of Madeira and Porto Santo will be under orange warning between 9:00 p.m. today and 9:00 p.m. Wednesday because of the rain, sometimes strong and persistent and due to the strong wind, with gusts up to 100 kilometers per hour, especially in the east and west extremes between 9:00 p.m. today and 12:00 p.m. Wednesday.

The archipelago of Madeira will also be under yellow warning between 09:00 and 21:00 Wednesday due to the forecast of strong maritime agitation, predicting west waves with 4 to 4.5 meters, passing to northwest waves.

The red warning is issued by IPMA in cases of extreme risk weather situation. The orange warning indicates a moderate to high risk weather situation and the yellow risk for certain activities dependent on the weather situation.