Bad weather brought down a bridge and affected a vineyard in the municipality of Moursa.

Heavy hail on Tuesday caused “tremendous damage” to vineyards in the Porre area, and rising waters from a stream destroyed a road bridge in Ribeirinha, Mursa municipality, the mayor said.

At the end of the day, Mario Artur López went to the parish of Porrais, in the Terra Quente district of the municipality, where, as he described to the Luz agency, he found a desert scenario after about 10 minutes of heavy hail.

“Hail fell, quite strong, and production was completely destroyed. There are vineyards here with a fully harvested crop,” said the mayor, who, without specifying the numbers, pointed to several hectares of vineyards included in the Douro demarcation region, which were affected and several winemakers were hit.

The mayor of the Vila Real district pointed to “tremendous damage” as a result of this episode of bad weather that hit the district today.

Technicians from the Northern Regional Authority for Agriculture and Fisheries (DRAPN) will travel to the area on Wednesday to assess the damage, Mario Artur Lopez said.

“We will try to determine everything as soon as possible and understand how the municipality can cooperate in this action,” he said.

Especially since, he added, wine production is the main source of income in the Terra Quente region of the municipality.

Also in this municipality, the force of the water from the stream, as a result of heavy rain, destroyed the road bridge connecting the Ratiso area and the village of Ribeirinha.

The area was hit hard by a massive fire that engulfed the municipality of Mursa in July 2022.

On the Facebook page “Meteo Trás-os-Montes” you can also see images (videos and photos) of the hail that fell today in the municipality of Alijo, namely in the Carlao region.

The images also show a section of Additional Route 5 (IC5) in this municipality painted white due to heavy hail.

Due to hail and heavy rain that hit an area of ​​about 1,600 hectares on Sunday and affected about 200 vine growers, Aliho Municipality has already announced that it will pay for the treatment of affected vineyards, mainly in parishes. Castedo and Cotas and San Mamede de Ribatua.

Alijo Mayor José Rodríguez Paredes said “there are many families with questionable income” so the municipality intends to fully fund calcium-based treatments to heal the vines.

To do this, he explained, producers only need to confirm ownership of the vineyards and present invoices for the purchase of products.

This line of support will be approved in June at a meeting of the chamber.