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Thunderstorms with winds of nearly 180 km / hour hit Portugal early Sunday, leaving hundreds of thousands without electricity before carrying heavy rains to Spain, authorities said.
The regions around the capital Lisbon and the center of the country, in Leiria and Coimbra, were the most affected by uprooted trees, damaged cars and homes, and reported local floods.
With the power down, dozens of people also left their homes and fled to the shelter.
Leslie was nicknamed a hurricane "zombie" during his training on September 23, and then crossed the Atlantic Ocean for weeks.
It was feared that this storm was the worst that has hit the region for more than 150 years, but it has weakened before reaching the Portuguese coast in the early hours of Sunday.
"It's a post-tropical storm now and we are already in the far north of the country," Lusa news agency spokesman Jorge Miranda told reporters. meteorology.
"It's still raining but the situation will soon return to normal," he added.
The Portuguese authorities have urged residents to calm down and stay indoors despite warnings of high winds reaching 176 kilometers by the hour.
"I have never seen anything like it," said a witness on CIS television in Figueira da Foz, 200 km north of Lisbon.
"The city seemed to be in a state of war with cars crushed by fallen trees," he said. "People were very worried."
The maritime authorities advised the fishermen at sea to return to the nearest port and the Portuguese airline TAP canceled seven flights to Lisbon.
Only five hurricanes arrived in this area of the Atlantic Ocean and it was feared that Leslie will prove to be the most powerful storm that has hit Portugal since 1842.
– One in 176 years –
Over the past 176 years, only Hurricane Vince made landfall in the Iberian Peninsula, hitting southern Spain in 2005, depending on weather conditions.
In October 2017, the strong winds caused by Hurricane Ophelia, which devastated northern Portugal and western Spain, caused forest fires that killed some 40 people during a heat wave.
Ophelia then landed in Ireland in the form of a violent storm, killing three people.
The Spanish Civil Protection Agency said the storms could still be "very strong locally" and that heavy rains were forecast for the north and east.
On Tuesday, heavy rains caused flash floods on the island of Mallorca, Spain, killing 12 people.
