Spain and Portugal on high alert as storms cause more damage

By David Latona and Paolo Laudani

MADRID, Feb 12 (Reuters) - Swathes of Spain and Portugal were on high alert on Thursday as heavy rain and strong winds battered the Iberian peninsula, felling ?trees, disrupting transport and forcing the closure of schools in some areas.

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. Advertisement Advertisement

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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.

Part of the A1 motorway between Portugal's north and south collapsed on Wednesday night near the medieval ?city of Coimbra after a levee broke underneath.

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. Advertisement

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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.

The weather forecast was improving and the airport expected to gradually recover normal service in the coming hours, Aena said.

'ATMOSPHERIC RIVER' OVER PORTUGAL Advertisement Advertisement

In Portugal, a weather phenomenon known as an "atmospheric river" - a wide corridor of concentrated water vapour carrying massive amounts ?of moisture from the tropics - brought new downpours, affecting the north to a greater extent, where authorities have evacuated about 3,000 residents.

The Portuguese Institute of the Sea and the Atmosphere (IPMA) said Storm Oriana - a separate Atlantic depression approaching the north of the peninsula - would ?not directly affect mainland Portugal, but would cause heavy rainfall and wind across most of the country on Thursday and Friday.

Infrastructure Minister Miguel Pinto Luz told reporters that restoring the affected stretch of the A1 motorway would take weeks, as repairs needed to wait for the floodwaters to recede.

Capacity at the Aguieira ?reservoir on the Mondego River near Coimbra was at 99%, raising the likelihood of flooding further down the river if authorities are forced to increase discharges.

(Reporting by David Latona and Paolo Laudani; Writing by Charlie Devereux; Editing by Timothy Heritage)