Batalha, Portugal, Feb. 5, 2026 (Lusa) - In Casal do Relvas, Batalha, the Sociedade Recreativa Relvense became a "home for everyone", providing refrigerators and stoves for the community that was left without electricity in the wake of Storm Kristin.

A generator provided by the municipality of Batalha, in the district of Leiria, allowed the club to remain open, where anyone can leave their food in refrigerators and freezers.

"It allows this to be their home, where they can store food and prepare meals," Rafael Albino, president of the Casal do Relvas village society, told the Lusa news agency on Thursday.

Part of the village remains without electricity, while another part is being powered by a generator installed at the transformer station.

Manuel José is the society's vice president, and he opened the doors this afternoon. Shortly afterwards, people began to arrive wanting to have coffee or charge their mobile phones.

In the morning, the doors were open to anyone who needed to pick up lunch food. "We try to do our best for others," he said.

Manuel José lost his garage, which was blown away by Storm Kristin. Francisco Caiado suffered more damage to his pine forest, which was flattened, and his home is still without electricity.

"My salvation is my son-in-law, who is a foreman at a construction company, and his boss lets him bring the generator at night so we can cope and take a shower. Then, in the morning, he takes it back. It's always like this, getting by," he said.

After five days closed, Carlos Costa's restaurant reopened on Monday at "half speed," with the help of a borrowed generator that "couldn't power everything," so he started by making light meals.

"We try to get by as best we can, we have to be resilient, we can't give up, and we have to fight," he said, telling Lusa that there is now power, thanks to the generator that powers the transformer post, so he can work, albeit still limited, but with "more normality".

With many people still unable to cook at home, Carlos Costa said they are continuing to serve takeaway meals.

"There was more damage in other places, but it was enough to leave us exhausted," he added.

A few kilometres away, the Pinheiros Recreation Centre also serves as a community support centre.

"We were able to prepare food for people who were unable to cook at home, those who have everything on electricity. Here at the back, where we have a bar where we hold parties, we set up a laundry room, we got washing machines and dryers from private individuals, and the village population and some people from outside came here to wash and dry their clothes," explained one of the managers, Luís Pereira.

On Wednesday, power was restored, also through a generator that supplies the transformer post, which serves about 90% of the village, with a few houses missing in places where grid destruction was greater.

"But there are a few houses here that don't have power at the moment, but there are other villages around where there is still no power because the destruction was so great, the low-voltage lines were completely devastated, and there is no response capacity from those who are repairing this," said Luís Pereira.

He described a "devastating scene" left by Storm Kristin in these villages in the municipality of Batalha.

Here, the silence is broken by the noise of generators, and many residents can still be seen repairing damaged roofs and fallen trees.

In these communities, people also gathered last week to form picket lines to prevent fuel theft from generators powering the water supply network. Meanwhile, the municipality has hired a private security company.

"We had to mobilise the population to work shifts during the day and at night to ensure that the diesel was not stolen and that the generators ran 24 hours a day so that these communities, supplied by boreholes, could have water," recalled Luís Pereira.

Eleven people have died in Portugal since last week as a result of the Kristin and Leonardo storms, which also left many hundreds injured and homeless.

The Central, Lisbon and Tagus Valley, and Alentejo regions are the most affected.

The government has declared a state of emergency for 68 municipalities until Sunday and announced a support package of up to €2.5 billion.

PLI/ADB // ADB.

Lusa