At least 4 still missing after rockslides
Source: Agencies |
February 23, 2010, Tuesday
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EMERGENCY crews used bulldozers and other heavy equipment yesterday to search for at least four people still missing in Madeira after flash floods and rockslides killed 42 people on the Portuguese vacation island.
Rescue teams in more than 400 vehicles worked all through the night to clear tons of caked mud, boulders and snapped trees that had piled up in the capital of Funchal and other coastal communities, authorities said.
After a month's worth of rain fell in about eight hours, a raging torrent of water and mud swept away people, houses and vehicles Saturday on the steep-sloped Atlantic Ocean island. Locals said the storm was the worst in living memory.
Only four people were officially unaccounted for yesterday, but officials said there could be further victims because blocked roads and downed phone lines made it difficult to get a complete picture of the damage.
Parts of downtown Funchal were cordoned off as crews pumped rainwater and sludge out of a shopping mall's underground parking lot where officials fear more bodies may be found. The parking lot's two levels were completely submerged.
"The recovery is going to be a hard work," resident Miguel Eduardo said. "It will take us a few months to recover."
More than 120 people were injured, and almost 120 others forced to leave their homes by the flooding were staying at a military barracks, according to the regional government.
Several main roads remained blocked by debris, but officials hoped to reopen all the island's roads by the end of the week.
The victims, in white body bags, were taken to Funchal's international airport where a makeshift morgue was set up. Among the dead was a local firefighter who was swept away in a muddy torrent as he tried to save a woman, his colleagues said.
The British Foreign office said one British national was killed and a few others had been hospitalized on Madeira. The island is popular with British tourists.
Madeira has a population of around 250,000 people.
Rescue teams in more than 400 vehicles worked all through the night to clear tons of caked mud, boulders and snapped trees that had piled up in the capital of Funchal and other coastal communities, authorities said.
After a month's worth of rain fell in about eight hours, a raging torrent of water and mud swept away people, houses and vehicles Saturday on the steep-sloped Atlantic Ocean island. Locals said the storm was the worst in living memory.
Only four people were officially unaccounted for yesterday, but officials said there could be further victims because blocked roads and downed phone lines made it difficult to get a complete picture of the damage.
Parts of downtown Funchal were cordoned off as crews pumped rainwater and sludge out of a shopping mall's underground parking lot where officials fear more bodies may be found. The parking lot's two levels were completely submerged.
"The recovery is going to be a hard work," resident Miguel Eduardo said. "It will take us a few months to recover."
More than 120 people were injured, and almost 120 others forced to leave their homes by the flooding were staying at a military barracks, according to the regional government.
Several main roads remained blocked by debris, but officials hoped to reopen all the island's roads by the end of the week.
The victims, in white body bags, were taken to Funchal's international airport where a makeshift morgue was set up. Among the dead was a local firefighter who was swept away in a muddy torrent as he tried to save a woman, his colleagues said.
The British Foreign office said one British national was killed and a few others had been hospitalized on Madeira. The island is popular with British tourists.
Madeira has a population of around 250,000 people.
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