Tornado

[cumbria sue]

Any news from east of cvo ? Caramujeira and Rocha Brava in particular? Any damage or injuries? Looks really bad from pictures.

we are on Rocha Brava and all seems to be ok although it was one helluva storm

[Ma-Ja's]

As far as we can see there is absolutely no damage to any property in the centre of Carvoeiro or to the East of the village.

We drive from Carvoeiro through Sesmaries to Ferragudo every day and can report that the only damage we have seen on this drive is to O Branco restaurant (which I believe is now open again), Jardin do Parisio, the corner of Monte Santo next to Jardin do Parisio and piece of wasteland that is also there. The big terracotta villa opposite Monte Santo had quite a lot of damage as the tornado headed this way towards Lagoa which is across the land where there are very few if any buildings (parallel to Boa Vista). We have seen no damage to any property in Sesmaries.

It seems like Lagoa and Silves bore the brunt of this tornado.

Hope this helps put some of your minds at ease.

[EMM]

We have just heard from our neighbours in Boavista, they only got their internet back this morning.
The storm missed them but their sons school in Lagoa was badly damaged but thank god none of the children were injured.

[traveler]

We got hit. We have a place in Cvo Clube and the devastation is astounding. Some areas look like a war zone. We lost windows, fencing and th esupporting wall, tiles, pool cover, lawn furniture, and 5 trees. I have found tiles buried 6 inches deep in my garden.

We were lucky. Some of my neighbors have lost their entire gardens and have significant structural damage.

I am down here just for the weekend too...we were having a girls weekend away and had guests from 5 diff. Countries. What a story they have to tell now.

The PT response has been phenomenal.

[Geoff]

Thankfully, Sesmarias seems to have been spared, though rain, thunder, lightning were terrific.
Drove through Lagoa today, which didn't seem to bad , other than a lot of advertising hoardings and trees by Pau d'Acucar were down.
Going towards Silves , a lot of lamp posts were askew/down and the carpark at Silves resembled a first world war battlefield....trees. lamp posts, signs all blown down. The top of the swimming pool is missing.Llots of GNR in attendance, with Bambeiros from Beja, Cuba (where?), Ourique. Town itself seemed OK, apart from some cables down. Will put some photos up later.

[laserblazer]

Big thanks to Bruce W for doing a recce. Seems like we were spared but by the skin of our teeth considering our proximity to Monet Santo.

[Geoff]

Photos from Silves this morning:

[James Faro]

Nature can be beautiful and yet vehemently violently vengeful when she wants to and nobody can stop her. The only good thing out of this if it can be described as "good" is that it happened in November and not during the peak season.

[sassyd]

@joeysoap We also have an apartment at Colina Verde and spoke to some friends who live in CVO this morning. They said no damage to our area luckily. Feel very sorry for those who have sustained damage or injury, especially the Portuguese who already have enough to cope with. The weather worldwise certainly seems to have turned on it's head

[matoserrao99]

Hi all , drove down this morning, cut across from the IC1 to Silves.
Couple of agricultural sheds with roof damage other than that no damage until you reach Silves.
Everything to the left of the traffic lights in Silves, really badly effected, the football stadium is now virtually flat, lots of trees down, people with chainsaws everywhere, awful, but traffic flowing freely to the lights.

The road from Silves to Lagoa, open, but some of the electric pylons, dtreet lighting is bent flat or twisted in unbelievable ways
This continues all the way to the Lagoa North turn off.
Lagoa North, awful, looks like a bomb zone, couldn't really go through so turned and came back out - the pedestrian bridge crossing towards Jumbo is an amazing twisted wreck.

Drove down towards Monte Santo - no real damage along the route - some flooding.

We live 100yards East of Monte Santo on the Rampa Matto Serrao - minor damage at the house, few bits of furniture blown about , pool overflowing, 1 shutter damaged. - Nothing really.

Did a tour - Everything East (towards Carvoeiro) of the entrance to Monte Santo is undamaged.

To the west end of Monte Santo, a line of damage about half a km across.
Damage to Monte Santo, mainly roofs and trees, the fencing that runs along the edge, the new builds next to it heading West
Jardin do Parisio has a lot of damage as does Carvoeiro Clube then East towards Ferragudo its as if it bever happened apart from a little flooding.

We went along the coast Centiennes, Benegil, Marinha, Rocha, Pera, Porches, Guia etc, no real damage, just a few branches down.

Condolences to everyone affected by this freak of nature

[joeysoap]

@joeysoap We also have an apartment at Colina Verde and spoke to some friends who live in CVO this morning. They said no damage to our area luckily. Feel very sorry for those who have sustained damage or injury, especially the Portuguese who already have enough to cope with. The weather worldwise certainly seems to have turned on it's head

not out until mid december, so thanks for the heads up. reassuring. So sorry for anyone affected by this this storm. could just as easily have been the east of cvo as the west.

[ceh]

Thanks to all of you who've posted detailed descriptions about the various areas - it really helps us. I can't believe how much destruction has occured - for those of you who have suffered, I'm very sorry.

[EMM]

A friend who has an office in the street behind the Galp station in Lagoa reported that he saw a large transit type vehicle on the first floor terrace of a building.
The damage is very localised his office is 500 metres from the impact zone and there is relatively little damage in his area.

Any damage reports from Slide and Splash or the golf courses ??

[shanagarry]

I only came for the weekend....

We drove around yesterday to see the extent of the devastation - Silves being the worst. The northern end of the tunnel at Silves has had its hoarding ripped off as has the big electronic sign just over the bridge on the left. The main road along the river is like the aftermath of a war - trees uprooted, the roof ripped off both the swimming pool and the stand of the football stadium. Many apartment blocks with broken windows and all of the roadside cafes have lost their awnings.

Back in Lagoa the area around the health centre and the theatre has had the tiles ripped off the walls and the theatre roof is buckled. Cars and a Transit van have been lifted and landed on top of others. The walkway that crosses the 125 from Pao de Acucar to Lagoa has had a very large tree land on it and buckle it quite severely. The force of the Tornado has taken down numerous power lines and knocked over the concrete poles that hold them.

The path of the tornado appears to have been onshore around the Monte Carvoeiro/Finistera area - Western edge of Quinta do Paraiso - Monte Santo - Sesmarias (eastern end) - East of Quinta das Pias - across the open countryside to the Pao de Acucar area - the western end of Lagoa - Silves (not too sure where it went from there). We went to check on a friend's property in Torre this afternoon but fortunately there's no sign of any damage once you get out of Silves on the eastern side.

Slide & Splash and Pestana appears to be intact and everything east of Lagoa seems to be untouched. The area around Finistera seems to have borne the brunt and is a real mess with considerable damage to property. There's an army of workers with chain saws all around the Finistera area of Carvoeiro Clube.

Not a pretty picture and is going to cost a bit to put back - but will create badly needed work.

[laserblazer]

From the photos, it looks like the footbridge by Pau D'Acucar was a bit mangled but Jumbo unaffected. I guess the wind is travelling at its fastest on the outer edges.