A Family That Survived The Floods - A Madeiran Retrospect

When saying "Hello" to Madeira, the first time visitor is presented with an immediate problem - namely, how to reach their hotel destination. Madeira Airport Transfers are essential. The 5 local bus companies can be confusing to the uninitiated and hiring a Madeira Taxi is the most sensible alternative. However, the first time visitor may not realise the terrible recent history that has occurred on this beautiful mid-Atlantic island paradise.

Funchal is the capital city of Madeira. Observing it now, you would hardly believe the chaos that reigned just barely twelve months ago. That was a time when the torrents of water rushing down from the mountainside invaded our usually peaceful city.

That a nominal insignificant date, namely 20th February 2010, is destined to live on in the memory of everybody who loves the island of Madeira cannot now be changed.

February 20th was the fateful date. Anybody who was resident on Madeira Island on that day is, like me, unable to forget the events that overtook us and dominated the following few days of our lives.

The winter, just coming to an end, had been wet. The soil was already saturated to the brim. The final few hours of heavy rain that occurred on that Saturday in late February was the final straw. Widespread flooding became inevitable.

Funchal being the capital and most urbanised area on the island, of course, saw extensive damage. However, other areas of the Madeira island did not escape the onslaught. Monte, Curral das Freiras - commonly known as Nun's Valley, Ribeira Brava, Serra d' ?gua, Tab?a, Ponta do Sol, Calheta, Santa Cruz and Camacha - famous for its wickerwork industry were all hit.

Suddenly, the attraction of the villages important to the tourist industry were submerged under an unforgiving sea of mud and rubble.

Mercifully, my residential neighbourhood was spared of any devastation and thank God it was a Saturday morning and my relatives were all at home. As it all got worse from mid-morning, they could well have been in serious danger, had they left the house early in the morning, as they normally do on a weekday.

Also, compared to the devastation of other districts, I must say what we had to deal with was of minor importance: no mains electric power for a few hours - we used a small radio on batteries to follow what was happening. Once the power supply was restored we were faced with a further inconvenience - the cable connection had been cut, so no television, and no telephone based communications - including the Internet. As I do business through the World Wide Web, I started getting worried about any emails from our customers that I couldn't access. After 60 stressful hours everything returned to normal. By then I had about 70 unread emails, each and every one asking me if we were all safe, God bless them!

Downtown Funchal was left submerged beneath a combination of water, mud, stones, debris, broken branches from trees... Inevitably, the aftermath of the flood got into every nook and cranny it could find. Shops, restaurants, shopping centers, supermarkets, parking lots, you name it.

Immediately the tempest of the storm subsided, the local authorities employed their resources to clearing up the aftermath.

Once most debris was removed, reconstruction started straight away. For our sake, and for the sake of our island, because we couldn't risk loosing one of Madeira's chief sources of income - the tourist industry.

Fortuitously, the hotel area was suitably positioned to miss the deluge, but the thought that Madeira was greatly damaged, would, most certainly, keep tourists away.

Currently, almost twelve months since that awful day, there are still a few things that need to be undertaken. However, now everybody is more environmentally conscious and understands that some behaviors are potentially dangerous and need to be avoided with vigor, like building too near to our water channel.

So history leads us along a voyage of difficult learning.

So, everybody reading this, thinking if it's still worth it to visit Madeira - of course it is, the island is as beautiful as ever and welcomes you with all it's heart.

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