The wildfires in Portugal and the storms that simultaneously flooded Central Europe are signs of “climate collapse,” according to EU Crisis Management Commissioner J. Lenarčič.
He highlighted that “Europe is the fastest-warming continent in the world, making it especially vulnerable to extreme weather events,” which, as he noted, “used to be once-in-a-lifetime occurrences” but now “are nearly annual events.”
In the 1980s, the EU allocated €8 million annually for disaster response, a figure that rose to €50 million by 2022.
The wildfires in central and northern Portugal have burned nearly 100,000 hectares in just five days, including dozens of homes. Seven people have died, and at least 50 have been injured. Yesterday, there were 8 active fire fronts, and 14 people were arrested for arson.
In parts of Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia, Storm Boris brought five times the average rainfall for September within just five days, leading to severe floods that claimed 24 lives. In Emilia-Romagna, northern Italy, the storm’s last impact zone, two people have been missing since yesterday, and 1,000 were forced to evacuate their homes.
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