The Portuguese Minister of State and Foreign Affairs spoke on Monday morning about the earthquake felt in Portugal during the early hours. Although there were no reports of damage or casualties, Paulo Rangel acknowledges that “this was a real test of the country’s response capabilities” to a tremor.
The minister begins by saying that, since 5:14 AM, he has been in “very close” contact with the Minister of Internal Administration (MAI) and the Civil Protection commander. It was immediately decided that “emergency mechanisms would not be activated,” which only happens when earthquakes of magnitude 6.1 or higher occur.
“Fortunately, there were no material damages or personal casualties to report. At least everything indicates that there was no incident of this nature,” Rangel highlights, emphasizing that “this was a real test of our response capabilities in case of a serious catastrophe.”
For the minister, the main “concern is knowing if we have the means to respond.” Furthermore, “a natural phenomenon of this intensity already allows us to verify how the resources are in readiness.”
Paulo Rangel is at the headquarters of the National Authority for Emergency and Civil Protection (ANEPC) in Carnaxide, Lisbon, where he met with the entity’s commander and discussed “prevention strategies, plans tested and reviewed long ago” and made a “projection for the future” regarding the preparation of local and regional structures and the general population for an occurrence of this type.
Finally, Rangel leaves a “message of serenity and calm functioning of institutions,” revealing that he was in contact with the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, with whom he will meet later.
It’s worth remembering that the Lisbon district was shaken by an earthquake shortly after 5:00 AM on Monday. The tremor was, however, felt throughout the country, according to Civil Protection.
According to IPMA, it was an earthquake of magnitude 5.3 on the Richter scale, occurring at 5:11 AM, at a depth of 16 km, with its epicenter 58 kilometers west of Sines.
The European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC) describes an earthquake of magnitude 5.4, occurring at 5:11 AM, with its epicenter at a distance of 78 km south-southeast of Setúbal and 58 kilometers south-southwest of Sesimbra.
The earthquake occurred at a depth of 10.7 kilometers, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), which estimated a magnitude of 5.4 on the Richter scale.
