Bad weather? CCP warns: “Preventing cannot mean stopping the country”

O president of the Confederation of Commerce and Services of Portugal (CCP) today argued that “preventing is mandatory” and that “no one forgets” the impact that the depression Kristin had in January, but stressed that “preventing cannot mean stopping the country”.

In a statement sent to the editors and speaking as “CCP president and as an entrepreneur who every day has people and trucks on the road,” Gustavo Paulo Duarte criticized the government’s decisions to prevent the impacts of depression Charles.

“Preventing is mandatory, and nobody forgets what the Kristin depression cost us in January. But prevention cannot mean stopping the country, nor treating each citizen as someone unable to take care of themselves ", says.

Recognizing that the country has crossed “two days of intense rain and strong winds”, with “floods, fallen trees, cut roads and a lot of work for firefighters, civil protection, security forces and municipal services”, the CCP leader argues that “each has its role”.

“The State advises, prevents and intervenes where the risk is real. People take care of themselves and their own, and do not expose themselves by recklessness to extreme winds. Journalists inform with rigor and prudence, without turning predictions into spectacle ", points out.

In the same note, Gustavo Paulo Duarte criticizes the news coverage made by televisions, to maintain that “the alarm has costs: schools and public services closed throughout the country, consultations postponed, shops and empty restaurants, a day of work lost for thousands of companies and families”.

And it extends criticism to opposition parties: “Politics, all of it, government and opposition, must come to light: a storm is not a matter of party dispute.”.

“ Those who manage, risk and have responsibilities know one simple thing. It's not always going well, even if you try to do it. That is what we must accept from decision-makers: do your best with the information they have, without deciding to think about the noise of the day or the criticism of tomorrow. Deciding out of fear costs the country ", adds the leader of the CCP.

Gustavo Paulo Duarte calls on them to “win judgment” and bring good sense back,” arguing: “the life of a country is worth more than the fear of each of us.”.

The leader of the CCP also takes advantage of all the work of the various entities involved, considering that “in Madeira, the night was hard”, but that on the continent, the national Civil Protection command itself considered the number of occurrences within the expected” and that “to date, there are no mortal victims to lament”.

The depression Charles, which motivated the activation of the alert situation throughout the territory of mainland Portugal from 00:00 to 23:59 today, lost power during the morning and divided into two cores of low pressure, one towards Lisbon and the other to the Algarve, the only region to maintain, in the middle of the afternoon, red weather warnings, due to rain and wind, however disabled.

The National Emergency and Civil Protection Authority registered up to 12:00 more than 500 occurrences related to bad weather on the continent, especially floods, falls of trees and collapses, while in Madeira, the first region to suffer the effects of the storm, there were more than 200.

More than a dozen people had to be relocated due to damage to their homes, but there is no record of victims.

In addition to closing schools and non-essential public services, bad weather motivated the cancellation of a few hundred flights and the cutting of roads.