Portuguese authorities placed all nine islands of the mid-Atlantic Azores archipelago under red alert Tuesday as Hurricane Gordon approached, packing wind gusts forecast at up to 170 kilometers per hour and heavy rainfall. Officials initially expected the storm to downgrade to a tropical storm before landfall, but it was projected to strike Tuesday evening as a Category 2 hurricane.
The civil protection service urged the roughly 240,000 residents to remain indoors. Regional authorities closed schools and barred fishermen from going to sea on Wednesday. Emergency personnel were placed on heightened overnight standby, and residents were advised to secure livestock, farm equipment, and outdoor bins.
A Category 2 storm on the Saffir-Simpson scale can shatter windows, damage roofs, topple trees, and flood coastal and low-lying zones. Waves as high as 12 meters (40 feet) were forecast, threatening air and sea travel. Direct hurricane strikes on the Azores, situated about 1,200 kilometers west of mainland Portugal, are uncommon.
Forecasters expected Gordon to eventually merge with a larger weather system moving toward northwestern Portugal and Spain on Thursday, bringing additional heavy rain to that region.
Historical summary. TurkishPress restated this wire report, first published in September 2006, in its own words.