The Avalanche Of Water That Hit Madeira In February 2010

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 option. However, the first time visitor may not realise the terrible recent history that has occurred on this lovely mid-Atlantic holiday island.

Anyone who visits Funchal today may find it hard to believe that it was only in February 2010 that extreme vagaries of the weather struck with forceful vengeance. Our normally peaceful city was laid open to devastating floods and damaging mudslides. It was a time that few who live here will live to forget.

That a nominal insignificant date, namely 20th February 2010, is unavoidable destined to remain in the memory of the sons and daughters of the island of Madeira cannot now be reversed.

You surely learnt of, watch with disbelief on the television news or knew by any other means, the turmoil Madeira went through on that day. It had been an unusually wet and rough winter, the mountainous soil was saturated to the surface and the further few hours of yet more torrential rain on that day, took its toll on our beautiful island.

The preceding winter had been wet. The soil was already saturated to the brim. The final few hours of drenching rain that occurred on that Saturday in late February was the final deciding onslaught. Widespread flooding became inevitable.

Several areas were severely affected: Funchal, Monte, Curral das Freiras, Ribeira Brava, Serra d' ?gua, Tab?a, Ponta do Sol, Calheta, Santa Cruz, Camacha.

Mercifully, my residential area was placed to avoid the devastation and to our eternal thanks it was a non-working 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 working day.

Also, compared to what went on, I must say what we had to deal with was of scant in the grand theme of life: no electric power for a short period - we used a small radio on batteries to follow what was going on. Once the mains electricity was restored we were faced with a further reality - the cable connection had been cut, so no TV, and no telephone based communications - including the Internet. As I do business through the Internet, I started getting worried about any emails from our clients that I couldn't read and react to. After 2 ? harrowing days everything was back to normal. By then I had about 70 unread messages, each, without fail, asking me if we were all alright, God bless them!

Downtown Funchal was left submerged beneath a mixture of water, mud, stones, debris, remains of trees... Regretfully, this debris got into every nook and cranny it could find. Shops, restaurants, shopping centers, supermarkets, parking lots, you name it.

As soon as the tempest of the storm subsided, the local authorities sent teams of workers to start the task of tidying and repairing the areas that demanded the greatest attention.

Once most debris was removed, reconstruction started poste haste. 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. We are all well aware that reputations are hard to build but quick to be destroyed!

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

Glancing around us, almost one year since that tragic day, there are still a few things that need to be done. However, now everybody is more environmentally conscious and comprehends that some behaviors are storing trouble for the future and need to be avoided at all costs, like building too close to our water channel.

So history leads us along a voyage of difficult learning.

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

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