Reports about the ‘shake’ that the city of Sines felt during the early hours are on the ‘tip of the tongue’ of merchants and the first customers of the Municipal Market, who shared with Lusa agency what they felt.
“I felt the earthquake this morning and the whole bed shaking, but I stayed in bed, a little scared,” said customer Dulce Correia.
Maria Rodrigues, one of the market traders, also said she felt the tremor as she was leaving home for work. “I felt it just as I was going out the door and heard my husband say: Get out, get out, it’s an earthquake,” she said, adding: “I have a bar at the entrance, with some bottles, and everything was shaking.”
Right next door, at another stall, Fernanda Pereira, busy organizing fruits and vegetables, told Lusa that she woke up with the earthquake “at 5:11 in the morning.” “I woke up with the trembling and noise, a lot of noise. I checked my phone and Android immediately told me to be careful and gave me instructions to follow,” she reported. Still, she stayed in bed: “I lay there waiting for aftershocks. We’re always waiting because it could always be something else,” she said.
Contacted by Lusa, the Mayor of Sines, Nuno Mascarenhas, said he also felt the earthquake, “as did a large part of the population” of this coastal Alentejo city. “The testimonies that civil protection has and the number of calls received say just that, that the earthquake was felt intensely in the city of Sines,” he stated. But “the most important thing is that there was no damage or casualties, so the population should remain calm, but be alert to situations that can occur at any moment,” he warned.
According to the mayor, after ensuring the safety of the population, “critical infrastructures” existing in the municipality must be taken into account. “We have been in contact with various entities. In fact, the Port of Sines was the first to call civil protection and, so far, there is no record of occurrences,” as well as in the other factories of the industrial complex, where “things are functioning within normality,” he reported.
Tiago Bugio, Sub-regional Commander of Emergency Civil Protection of the Alentejo Coast, also told Lusa that “there was no material or personal damage” throughout the Alentejo coastal region. “Firefighters and civil protection received numerous calls from people alarmed and concerned about this situation, but with no record of damage,” he stressed. However, the official warned of the need to adopt behaviors in case of an earthquake: “People should leave their homes or workplace and, if they can’t, they should protect themselves under a table or in a doorway.”
The earthquake, with a magnitude of 5.3 on the Richter scale, was recorded at 05:11 and had its epicenter 58 kilometers west of Sines, causing no personal or material damage so far, according to the Portuguese Institute of Sea and Atmosphere (IPMA).
The earthquake has since had three aftershocks, according to the National Emergency and Civil Protection Authority (ANEPC). “To date, three more aftershocks have been felt. The first with magnitude 1.2, the second 1.1, and the third 0.9. If it becomes necessary again, we will issue new warnings and communications,” said the national commander of emergency and civil protection, André Fernandes, in a briefing at 08:00.
