Lisbon mayor says city is ‘extremely prepared’ for seismic risk

The mayor of Lisbon said this Wednesday that the Portuguese capital is “extremely prepared” for the possibility of an earthquake like the one that hit Turkey and Syria on Monday, including the tsunami warning system.

“I would like to assure you that Lisbon has prepared for potential earthquakes and we all know that we live in an area of ​​the country where these earthquakes can occur. As a civil engineer and as a person who has worked in this area, our city is extremely prepared after the 1980s, unfortunately not in the oldest quarters, but very, very prepared in terms of design and construction,” stated Carlos Moedas (PSD).

The mayor spoke at a decentralized open meeting of the Lisbon city council to hear the residents of the parishes of Santa Maria Maior, Santo António, Sao Vicente and Misericordia, after being asked by a citizen of Lisbon about what is being done in the cities to prevent the possibility of an earthquake similar to the one that happened on Monday in Turkey and Syria, as the capital of Portugal is in a seismic risk zone.

“I believe that there are contingency plans, but I don’t think they reach the population, at least I don’t know about it,” citizen Enrique Souza said, asking about public awareness, the exercise and the definition preparation activities, including what to do and where to go in case of an earthquake.

In response, the mayor said that Lisbon has a municipal program to improve the seismic resistance of private and municipal building stock and municipal urban infrastructure called ReSist, aimed at “strengthening the entire seismic protection of buildings”, including “mapping all buildings”. which are not yet fortified.

Carlos Moedas stressed the importance of the ReSist municipal program, which is linked to the European Commission and receives “a lot of money” from European funds.

The mayor highlighted the introduction of a tsunami warning and warning system at the mouth of the Tagus, the installation of sirens in Praça do Imperio and Ribeira das Naus and the identification of evacuation routes.

“If a catastrophe of this kind [sismo] in Lisbon, this would also mean a tsunami,” said the mayor, recalling the implementation of the simulation at the end of November 2022.

The Lisbon Chamber “handed out a lot of emergency kits” and carried out “a whole lot of civil protection work” in schools, Carlos Moedas said, pointing out that “there are a lot” of activities to prepare the city for the risk.

“Obviously, unfortunately, sometimes it doesn’t reach everyone, but I would like to leave this word of calm regarding our preparation for everything that is a municipal protection emergency plan: knowing where people should go, who is doing what. , which is one of the most important things during a disaster,” the mayor emphasized, noting that several organizations are involved, including the Lisbon municipal police and fire department, as well as control preparations.

“All this is very important, and Lisbon has such preparation for all this,” he assured.

The death toll from Monday’s earthquake in Turkey and Syria topped 11,200, according to official figures released this Wednesday.

A strong earthquake measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale has hit southeastern Turkey and northern Syria. It was followed by several aftershocks and a new earthquake of magnitude 7.5, which, according to experts, was the result of the first.