Much has been said and written about what failed in relation to Storm Kristin, which left thousands of people without the most basic things – protection, water, electricity and communications – in the central region of the country. We were quick to point guns and bullets at everything that went wrong (several things!), but as always, we have difficulty using it for what went right. It’s normal, because our humanity leads us to do so, but it’s necessary. First, and contrary to what has been common, I do not agree with the readings that prevention failed. The warnings appeared several days before the fateful night of January 27th – the 22nd, when the Ingrid depression passed. Preventive dam releases had already begun, which continued in the following days, when there were more storms. The warnings reached the entire national territory – and it is not necessary to have a higher education degree to understand what winds of 140 km/h are. On radio, television, newspapers and social media the warnings were clear: avoid non-essential trips; remove objects that could fly from balconies and backyards, close windows and shutters or blinds; Do not walk near the sea or watercourses, as there was a risk of flooding. How do you stop a wind of 140 (or 208) km/h? It doesn’t lock. A wind that cuts trees in half, rips off bell towers that have survived centuries or turns cars upside down is not stoppable. And so much so that prevention worked, that the number of people who lost their lives that night, being always high, was effectively “a miracle”, in the words of the mayor of Leiria.
The response from the central government and national authorities – Civil Protection, Armed Forces – was manifestly slow. There is no justification for not having, until Friday, a national Civil Protection strategy or military personnel on the ground from the very beginning. But what we saw happening between individuals and companies was very valuable, especially at a time when what seems to me to be the most serious failure: communications. Since taking office in 2024, the president of ANACOM, Sandra Maximiano, has warned about the lack of resilience and redundancy of networks. It has tried to force the sharing of infrastructures, but also the construction of new ones to prevent, as has happened again, people from becoming isolated. Warnings that operators – and the Government – should have made immediately after the 2024 earthquake! – act accordingly. In an interview with Visão, that year, he said clearly: “If there is an overwhelming catastrophe, and if nothing is left standing, we can hardly count on cell phones”. What worked? Battery-powered radios in homes that learned from the blackout, which allowed people to go to places where aid has been distributed. Neighboring municipalities opening doors to structures, providing generators, companies sharing material and human resources, and all this without waiting for the authorities. Because, sometimes, what we really need is for us to not fail to empathize. Should the Government have been better prepared? Of course. Did everything fail? No. The people didn’t fail. And, in these times, that is no small thing.
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