A “nightmare” night, which for many ended up with no possibility of returning home, with water pumps removing water from buildings or mop in hand to clean.
Many inhabitants of the municipality of Loulé, mainly from the city of Quarteira, spent a sleepless night due to the heavy rain that fell during the night of yesterday and early morning today, Thursday, in some cases with water above the waist.
On Rua Vasco Gama, one of Quarteira's main commercial arteries, the consequences of the heavy rain that had fallen a few hours before were clearly visible at mid-morning.
The water still persisted in keeping itself in basements and houses, with firefighters removing what they could with the help of water pumps. In other parts of the city, the inhabitants themselves used the hoses to suck water from the floors below the ground.
“This night was really a nightmare, I haven't slept until now”, revealed Natércia Pereira, a resident of this street in Quarteira “for more than 20 years”, who guarantees that she has never experienced “anything like that”.
“We have already had floods, with water up to the ankle and even the knee. But yesterday the water came up to my chest, the last time I went there to get my medications», in other words, more than a meter high, he told the Sul Informação, on the street, at the door of your house.
Natércia Pereira and her family, of “six adults and a baby”, spent the night trying to save what they could, a task that turned out to be quite complicated, since “water ran off the walls that even looked like faucets”.
“Everything got wet. Blankets, mattresses, baby clothes. I already have blankets, a friend brought me a shipment of them, and baby clothes too, they've already promised me they'll bring some», she said.
Inside the house, you could see furniture and appliances, overturned and still in water and possessions piled up in the higher areas, in a scenario of chaos.
In the morning, they stayed at the door of the house and around noon they still did not know where they would stay until their house was habitable again. “There was a social worker here, who said she was going to see if she could find us a place, at least to sleep. Let's see if it happens there in the afternoon», he said.
Before, the Civil Protection had already advanced the possibility of this family going to the local Fire Station, where there are already resettled people, a possibility that Natércia Pereira does not put aside.
Quarteira shopkeepers also spent the night in a blank
In Quarteira, water also ended up entering commercial establishments, some of which were still struggling to clean up the damage caused by the flooding around midday.
One of the stores affected was Pronto-a-Vestir and Sapataria Rita, whose owner, the merchant known in town as Mealha, assured that it was after cleaning the gutters on his own initiative that the situation improved.
“This started around 23:15, lasted beyond four in the morning and there was a sea of water here. We were only able to unlock this water when we cleared the waterways. Nothing leaked out, it was something impressive», he said.
"They don't clean anything," he accused. “They know perfectly well that every year, at this time, there is always heavy rain. And they even know when it rains, the hour and the minutes. There is a need for prevention, to avoid this type of situation», he defended.
Inside the store, the damage caused by the water, which reached "five centimeters high", was revealed by sodden cardboard shoeboxes and by garbage, most of which had already been collected. This is despite the fact that the store has a sign placed on the door to keep out water. "If I didn't have it, there would be water up to the neck down there," explained the trader from Quarteira.
Consequences are visible in different parts of the county
Quarteira was the place where the most complicated moments were experienced, due to its proximity to the ocean, which led to the combination of high tide with the runoff caused by the rain. But there were several places in the municipality of Loulé where the water caused damage.
At Fonte Coberta, in Almancil and next to the Vila Sol development, on the road between Quarteira and Quatro Estradas, traffic had to be cut off for several hours.
In the morning, the road was already clear, but the surrounding land was still flooded and the streams flowing with unusual force.
More complicated to resolve was a landslide on the railway near Vale Judeu, which prevented trains from circulating between Loulé and Boliqueime stations. A video uploaded by a reader of Sul Informação and available at our facebook page shows the road in this area completely covered with water, although its height was not enough to prevent cars from circulating.
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