Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, who returns to Portugal on Monday after a Christmas visit to the Portuguese troops deployed in Afghanistan, has continued to monitor the situation of bad weather that has devastated the country in recent days, according to a note posted on the website of the presidency.

"During this weekend, President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa spoke on the phone with the mayor of Montemor-o-Velho, Emílio Torrão, to whom he called four times to find out how the situation in Baixo Mondego is developing. The president intends to go to that region in the next few days,” the message said.

On Friday, before leaving for Afghanistan, the head of state had already admitted to visiting the areas affected by the Elsa depression this week, stating that he could not do so until the weekend when he had institutional commitments.

The effects of bad weather, which have been felt since Wednesday, have already caused two deaths and one missing and have left 144 people homeless and another 352 displaced as a precaution, with more than 11,600 occurrences, mostly floods and falls of trees.

The bad weather, caused by the Elsa depression, between Wednesday and Friday, which was joined on Saturday by the Fabien depression, has also caused road and rail traffic conditions, as well as damage to the electrical network, affecting the distribution of energy to thousands of people, especially in the Central region.

The National Civil Protection Authority, in a balance made on Monday at 10 a.m., said that the district of Coimbra is the one that causes even more concern, although the number of occurrences has fallen significantly, and we expect the reduction of the Mondego river bed in the coming days.

On Sunday night, the mayor of Montemor-o-Velho said that the left slope of the right peripheral riverbed of the Mondego collapsed, where a few hours earlier a landslide had been identified.

Emílio Torrão confirmed the collapse of the left slope, over a length of 50 metres, as well as the transfer of water to that channel from the flooded agricultural fields, about half a kilometre upstream of the Lavandeiras bridge, in the village of Casal Novo, do Rio.

The village is being protected through a barrier of stones and sandbags, placed there by Civil Protection.

The municipality asked the Minister of the Environment, João Matos Fernandes, that EDP could suspend discharges into the Agueira dam - a request that was being complied with, according to the mayor.