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Two years after the passage of Storm Leslie, the support in the agricultural sector will be almost fully implemented, the municipalities have already received part of the financial support from the State, although with criticism for the lack of speed, but it is in the social sector where the process is further behind and no financing contract has yet been signed with the State.
At the Casa do Povo da Abrunheira, in Montemor-o-Velho, it seems that the storm did not pass there, at least looking from the outside at the buildings where the three houses with 100 users of this institution operate.
José Carvalho, president of the institution, invites you to enter and, right in the auditorium, you can see Leslie’s marks, where part of the false ceiling fell.
You go up to the first floor and you see the provisional solution, a roof, still without a false ceiling, which exposes the wooden beams that supported the old roof, which gave way to the strong winds that were felt there.
Objects and equipment scattered with tarps are scattered on the ground. You can also see the computers, which were damaged, and the trophies of the institution that could be recovered, but there are others, lighter, that went with the wind, recalls José Carvalho.
In this institution, from which some elderly had to leave their rooms because “they stayed in the rain”, the losses were around 900 thousand euros. More than 200 thousand euros were paid for the insurance coverage, which made it possible to build a new coverage and create some patches, reported this official.
However, many of the solutions remain provisional, Lusa José Carvalho told the agency, noting that there are rooms where users cannot be put in because “it is still raining inside.”
“Support was supposed to come last year and it didn’t. In March, there was an order from the CCDR to do the protocols and there I even took a deep breath. Then the Secretary of State came to suspend contracts “
He has been waiting for state support for two years and still has no indication of when that payment will come.
“Support was supposed to come last year and it didn’t. It was expected to enter the 2020 State Budget. In March, there was an order from the CCDR [Comissão de Coordenação e Desenvolvimento Regional] to do the protocols and then I even took a deep breath. Then the Secretary of State came to suspend the contracts, ”said José Carvalho, who is still waiting for the money, which, in the case of the Casa do Povo da Abrunheira, will be about 300 thousand euros of investment.
Questioned by the Lusa agency, the Ministry of Modernization of the State and Public Administrations stated that the Center’s CCDR has already completed the validation and admission process, and that the financing contracts depend on the “availability of financial allocation for the purpose, which, in this phase, it translates into approximately one million euros, to be invested until the end of the year ”.
Like Casa do Povo da Abrunheira, many more institutions in the Centro region, especially in the Coimbra district, are waiting for support.
According to the guardianship, there were a total of 160 requests from 17 affected municipalities.
In the União Verridense Philharmonic Association, also in Montemor-o-Velho, the ceiling and the structure of the false ceiling fell into a preparation room and where the music school works.
There were temporary arrangements, but the solution, says the president of the association, Francisco Baptista, is “provisional.”
“The ceiling is what worries us. With each winter that passes, things remain the same, ”he said, noting that, in that association, the estimated loss is around 18 thousand euros and the insurance did not cover all the damages.
For the mayor of Montemor-o-Velho, Emílio Torrão, the Government “has to make a quick decision” so that these entities have their situations resolved.
In the case of the municipality, it has already begun to receive support, but the rate at which the money is transferred is very slow, he said.
“The municipalities live on budgets, in particular Montemor, with the money counted. Of the 545 thousand euros invested [pela Câmara], we still only receive about 132 thousand euros [do Estado], of a 60% stake of 775 thousand euros. It becomes very difficult ”, he emphasized.
In agriculture, where support began to arrive earlier, the situation is different.
Whoever had the licensed infrastructure received support from the State. And those who had crop insurance managed to get hold of part of the losses.
“Farmers who did not have insurance had to bear the losses and are gradually recovering,” said the president of the Montemor-o-Velho Agrarian Cooperative, Armindo Valente, which has more than 3,000 associates throughout Baixo Mondego. .
Although the sector has recovered, this has not happened without problems, with cases of farmers having to go into debt and others putting off investments, such as the cooperative itself, he said.
Leslie screwed up “all the long-term plans”
If most recovered and continued the activity, not all were so lucky.
Tiago André, 34, had started raspberry production in Santo Varão, Montemor-o-Velho, in 2017, using community funds.
When Leslie arrived, he ruined “all the long-term plans” of his “private and professional” life, he says.
With all the production destroyed (some 30 thousand plants) and with a bank loan of 100,000 euros to pay, Tiago André assumed from the beginning that it would be difficult to resume the activity that he had just started.
He surrendered, as soon as he learned that he could only receive a “maximum” 70 thousand euros from the State for an additional investment of 150 thousand euros to start production.
Unable to borrow more, he went to Luxembourg to continue paying the bank for the investment he had made.
Today he works in Alentejo, “with the burden of debt on his back”.
“The state is here to protect us and that is why we pay taxes. I have lost all my income and have not assumed anything. They abandoned me ”, lamented the young man.
