Portugal shuts schools, tech conference as it braces for storm

If you're watching the program earlier on today and indeed over the last few days, you all know that we've sent our business editor this week, Charles Pellegrin, to the huge Web Summit, which is being held in Lisbon. We spoke to him live from the summit on yesterday's program. But today, well, a huge storm, perhaps rather aptly named after him, Storm Charles, is reaching mainland Portugal, meaning, of course, the closure of many schools there, non-essential services and indeed the summit itself falling victim. As well, but I did speak to him a little earlier on from the streets of Lisbon. He gave us the latest on that story. I'd love to say I came prepared with all the gear necessary, but I am not prepared at all. But yes, there's a storm that passed over the island of Madeira on Tuesday night. And this Wednesday, it's arriving on Portugal's shores. The south of the country is particularly affected. The greater Lisbon area has been placed on the high alert, on the highest level of alert by the government, saying. Yes, that people should stay indoors, not take any unnecessary risks. Schools have been shut, parks have been shut, the tunnels, the major highways are restricted. Cars can't go too quickly on the roads here. Prime Minister Luis Montenegro is saying that people should not underestimate how dangerous this storm is going to be when it hits. The worst part of it will be between midday and until the end of the afternoon, early evening. We're expecting winds of up to 120 kilometers per hour and also a very intense wind gusts that are going to be faster than that. So all of this is why the government and the authorities have opted to send this high alert and why the organizers of the wet summit late last night decided to cancel all events this Wednesday, probably after long negotiations with the authorities. The site is right next to the shoreline. There's a lot of temporary structures that could be blown away. Potentially, there's a lot of flooding risks. Well, so it didn't make any sense to have the 70,000 attendees of this event be in that area at that moment. So they made the very tough decision to cancel all the events this Wednesday. And now this is the biggest tech event in Europe every year. And this 2024 edition will probably be remembered as the Wet Summit.