Travel chaos is looming for Britons as a much-loved tourist destination grapples with deadly floods.
Portugal has declared a state of emergency following Storm Kristin, which has so far claimed eight lives and caused widespread devastation.
Text alerts warning of flood risks have been sent to residents across the country.
While Prime Minister Luis Montenegro has been forced to divert €2.5billion (£2.1 billion) in recovery funding across the land.
The emergency measures, first introduced on Thursday, have been extended until February 8 in Portugal’s worst-affected regions.
“Some areas will face more serious situations, which may even require evacuation,” Mr Montenegro said at a press conference after an emergency cabinet meeting.
He warned that much of “the ground is saturated”.
The storm battered central and northern Portugal, home to tourist favourite Porto, with winds reaching 125mph, triggering floods, landslides and significant infrastructure damage.
Shock maps show the storm snarling around Portugal
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IPMA
Drone footage has captured entire neighbourhoods submerged, with roads transformed into waterways.
Images show homes stripped of their roofs, church ceilings torn away, and factories left in ruins by the ferocious winds.
And locals have been seen queueing to collect roof tiles in a desperate bid to repair their homes.
Vehicles have been seen floating through flooded streets, while receding waters have exposed piles of debris.
Rescue teams have been filmed wading through floodwater up to their their chests in forests and orchards.
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Locals have been seen queueing to collect roof tiles in a desperate bid to repair their homes
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REUTERS
Countless trees were uprooted or snapped by the hurricane-force gusts.
Around 167,000 properties remain without electricity, predominantly in central Portugal.
This figure has fallen from over one million households affected when the storm first struck, according to power company E-REDES.
A 73-year-old man died near Leiria today from carbon monoxide poisoning caused by a backup generator.
Leiria city councillor Luis Lopes urged residents to keep generators “outside in ventilated areas to stay safe”.
A beach bar was seen devastated after Storm Kristin struck
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REUTERS
Two men died on Saturday after falling while fixing storm-damaged roofs.
Three fatalities have been directly attributed to the severe weather, with two victims suffering heart attacks.
Emergency services reported one person was killed when a tree crushed their vehicle in Vila Franca de Xira, near Lisbon.
Mayor Goncalo Lopes said: “We mourn four deaths, two caused directly by the phenomenon we experienced.”
The national weather agency IPMA has placed mainland Portugal on alert until Monday, with heavy rain and winds up to 60mph forecast.
“Current weather predictions are very severe and could cause major damage,” said Mario Silvestre, the country’s national civil protection commander.
“The soil can no longer retain water, so all the rain will run off into the basin areas. It is not a question of if, but when, and how severe it will be.”
