More than 300 flights in and out of Portugal have been cancelled, while businesses and all schools nationwide shut down before Storm Charles hit the country’s mainland, but the heavy rainfall and intense winds passed without causing severe damage.
Operations shut down on Wednesday across four different international airports, as well as hundreds of supermarkets and all non-essential public services across the country.
For the first time in living memory, about 8,000 of Portugal’s schools cancelled classes over the significant Atlantic storm forecast.
Streets were largely deserted when Storm Charles arrived, because the government had told people to stay at home, fearing the worst.
The national weather agency, IPMA, recorded wind gusts of more than 120km/h (75mph) in some areas.
Buses without passengers drove through the country’s capital, Lisbon, where some streets flooded due to clogged drains.
A national supermarket chain closed its stores, while the Web Summit technology conference in Lisbon, attended by about 70,000 people, called off the day’s events.
By mid-afternoon, only the southern Algarve region, a popular European tourist destination, remained on red alert, the highest level of emergency warning, which initially had covered more than half of the country.
Storm Charles had struck the Portuguese island of Madeira, off northwest Africa, on Tuesday with 130km/h (81mph) winds.
In January, the country’s centre-right government faced harsh criticism for its weak response when Storm Kristin hit central Portugal, felling thousands of trees and causing widespread property damage that is still being repaired.
In February, a 70-year-old man died in the southern region of Alentejo after flooding swept his vehicle off a street in the aftermath of Storm Leonardo.
Prime Minister Luis Montenegro chaired a crisis unit along with eight government ministers and other officials to monitor the storm.
Interior Minister Luis Neves, who oversees public safety, dismissed suggestions that authorities had overreacted, saying the government organised its response in accordance with the weather forecast.
Storm Charles was forecast to head later into Spain, where workers staged a general strike Wednesday. Strike organisers cancelled or postponed demonstrations in some southern cities, including Cordoba, Huelva and Cadiz.
