LISBON/MADRID: A viaduct on a Portuguese motorway connecting Lisbon to Porto has partially collapsed, in the wake of storms and flash floods that have swept across the country.
“The speed and force of the water...it’s an absolutely abnormal situation,” said Portuguese Infrastructure Minister Miguel Pinto Luz, who visited the site after the collapse on Wednesday. No injuries were reported, he said.
However, the minister noted it would likely take “weeks for this infrastructure to be operational again”.
The section of motorway where the viaduct was located had been closed to traffic in both directions after the partial breach of a dike on Wednesday. The collapse occurred a few hours later.
Strong winds disrupt flights, injure dozens in Spain
About fifteen trucks loaded with riprap — stones and rubble meant to protect against erosion — were later brought in to reinforce the breach. The collapse comes after deadly storms have battered Portugal for the past two weeks, pummelling the country’s infrastructure.
Also on Wednesday, a train derailed near the central city of Abrantes, after hitting debris that had fallen onto the tracks. No one was injured, but several railway lines remain suspended in Portugal. Following the passage of storms Kristin, Leonardo, and Marta — extra-tropical cyclones which dealt significant damage — Portugal is on alert again due to the risk of flash floods caused by heavy rainfall.
Iberian Peninsula — the frontline of climate change
The Iberian Peninsula is on the front line of climate change in Europe and is experiencing increasingly long heatwaves and more frequent and intense episodes of heavy rain. “In just these two days, the rainfall has been equivalent to 20 per cent of Portugal’s average annual rainfall,” Environment Minister Maria da Graca Carvalho stated on Wednesday.
Under fire from critics, Portugal’s interior minister Maria Lucia Amaral resigned Tuesday. The government, still facing public pressure, will face questioning from parliament on its handling of the crisis on Friday.
One person was in a serious condition after being struck by a falling tree in the northeastern Spanish region of Catalonia in the latest storms to hit the region in the past few weeks. A woman was seriously injured in Barcelona after a roof collapsed at the business where she worked, and another person was seriously injured by a lamp post that fell, the mayor’s office said in a statement.
A red alert — the highest level — has been decreed in the northern Spanish regions of Galicia, Cantabria and the Basque Country after the arrival on Wednesday of Nils, the eighth storm to hit Spain this year. Weather agency AEMET warned of waves up to nine metres (30 feet) tall.
Authorities in Catalonia suspended classes and sporting events and restricted non-essential healthcare services as wind gusts of over 105 km per hour (65 mph) felled trees, disrupting road and rail traffic across the region. Catalan civil protection services sent a mobile emergency alert warning the population to stay indoors and avoid unnecessary travel.
More than 100 flights departing from or landing at Barcelona’s El Prat airport have been cancelled, airport operator Aena said on X.
Published in Dawn, February 13th, 2026