Historical disasters

Floods are temporary and natural phenomena, caused by moderate rainfall and permanent or sudden and high-intensity rainfall. This excess rainfall does increase the flow of water, giving you a little nervous of the normal bed and flood the banks and surrounding areas. In some parts of the globe the floods may be due to the melting of ice caps.

Portugal suffered severe floods in the past, and other natural disasters that caused serious problems like thousands of victims and much destruction due to weak structures and the few rescue and prevention techniques.

The most affected areas in Portugal are Porto, Vila Nova de Gaia and Peso da Régua.

Historic floods in Lisbon

• Lisbon is the City that had more occurrences of landslides in the last 150 years. From 1865 until 2015, the capital has registered 56 landslides that caused 32 dead, 125 evacuated and 402 homeless.

• It is the biggest scientific survey of floods and landslides that caused deaths in Portugal in the last century and a half.

• Lisbon is a very conducive to this type of disasters because the topography and the geology are complicated. The solo features not much consolidated sedimentary rocks, tilted with the slope of the strands.

Historic Floods in Porto

• These floods occurred in the Porto, on the banks of the Douro River, due to the huge increase in the barrage of Crestuma.