Storm Claudia Swamps Greater Lisbon: Two Dead, 20,000 Lose Power

The first real blast of the winter season has left mainland Portugal grappling with overflowing streams, toppled pines and widespread power cuts. Storm Claudia, swirling in from the Atlantic, delivered enough rain in a few nocturnal hours to overwhelm drainage systems designed for calmer times, and by mid-morning the human cost was already apparent.

Sudden floods claim lives south of Lisbon

A ground-floor home in Fernão Ferro, a commuter parish in Seixal, filled with water so quickly that the couple inside had no chance to escape. Rescue divers found the victims shortly after dawn, bringing the storm’s death toll to 2. Forty kilometres further northeast, in Alferrarede on the outskirts of Abrantes, five residents were ferried to municipal shelter when knee-deep water made their cottages uninhabitable. Fire chiefs say the morning tally of 918 separate incidents included everything from submerged cars to blocked farm tracks, with the Lisbon and Tagus Valley basin absorbing the worst of the deluge.

Claudia pushes emergency services to the limit

The national command centre of the Autoridade Nacional de Emergência e Proteção Civil moved to its highest readiness level just after midnight. Between then and 11:00 local time operators fielded one call every ninety seconds, most reporting sudden urban floods. Volunteers from at least twenty-three corpos de bombeiros were redeployed toward underpasses along the IC20 and to the riverside station at Cais do Sodré, where platform drains clogged by wind-blown leaves threatened rail traffic. In the Central Region, where 263 incidents were logged, commanders spoke of an “assembly-line” rhythm: pumps, sandbags, move on.

Lights out across the power grid

High wind gusts snapped branches onto overhead lines and shorted transformers, leaving roughly 20 000 customers in the dark before sunrise in the districts of Lisbon, Santarém and Setúbal. Grid operator E-REDES had trimmed the figure to 13 000 pending reconnection by 10:30, but crews warned that each new squall could undo an hour’s work. Residents were advised to unplug televisions and routers, as voltage spikes are common when damaged feeders are re-energised. The utility has placed technicians on rolling 12-hour shifts until the final weather alerts lift.

Weather warnings: what still lies ahead

Meteorologists at the Instituto Português do Mar e da Atmosfera kept a red warning active for Santarém and Setúbal through late morning, citing the risk of “persistent, locally extreme” rainfall. Orange alerts stretched across Portalegre, Évora, Beja and Faro until early afternoon, while every other mainland district and the Madeira archipelago remained under a yellow advisory for strong wind and rough seas. Forecast models hint at a brief overnight lull, but another Atlantic depression is already charted for the weekend, keeping river levels high and beach access risky.

Bigger questions on storm readiness

Climatologists have tied heavier Iberian rain bands to a warming Atlantic, warning that downpours like today’s will become more frequent. Yet large-scale upgrades—such as Lisbon’s planned €180 M deep-drain tunnel—are years from completion. Until then, authorities rely on rapid alerts, volunteer firefighters, and household preparedness. Researchers at the University of Coimbra stress that small acts—clearing gutters, elevating sockets, storing battery lanterns—remain the cheapest defences against the sudden surge that ended two lives this morning. With winter only beginning, Portugal’s ability to adapt will be tested again long before memories of Storm Claudia fade.