Madeira News Blog

4 Comments to “20/2 Anniversary; European Windsurfing Championships, Madeira start Thursday; Madeiran Olympic Windsurfer João Rodrigues; Carnaval da Madeira 2012: Awesome film: Cortejo Alegórico da Madeira, Saturday night, 19th February; Football: emergence of Braga as fourth “grande”; Braga Madeira-born coach Leonardo Jardim not getting carried away; Lima & Viana;”

1. peter says:

   Monday, February 20, 2012 at 6:39 pm

   from dnoticias Relatives of victims of the storm live today Madeira day of mourning… In the window of a garage in place of the Orangery, the center of Funchal, this morning burned five candles for each person who died there exactly two years ago when a crane fell on the area.

   In another window in the same house, rebuilt after the storm of February 20, 2010, causing 43 dead and six missing in Madeira, Maria Jose Leitao, 55, unraveled the rosary of pain that raged ever since.

   “Hence, I always see February 20, never forget,” he declared Lusa the inhabitant, three days after being operated for the third time after the tragedy, in which she lost her husband, a sister and a nephew. In his garage, in the parish of St. Anthony, died, another woman and a child of five years.

   The memories are hard to erase, now joins the fear every time it rains, every time the wind blows stronger. If fear was before the crane, which was used to build the road elevation 500, is now the land, which predicts detachment.

   “The land [along the viaduct] continue to hold. The weather has been good, but does not mean they do not come on down and when it does catch these homes,” said Maria José Leitão, reminding the president had warned the Government of Madeira when Alberto João Jardim opened the way in the campaign for regional elections, but the solution seems latest.

   “It was a weight that took us back,” stated the resident, in tears and days it takes to be a greater grief.

   Paula Gouveia, 41, carries, for its part, the burden of never having gone to the funeral of their sister – who was accompanied by a colleague – and the niece of nine months, all vanished with the storm.

   “No we do the funeral is that it costs more,” said the woman, in Trapiche, a place in the same parish of St. Anthony, noting that the house where the victims were “stood aside” and his “father hanging from a window” .

   He was eventually rescued by locals, but as this fatality was not enough, the family, a year later, the same month of February, was confronted with another disappearance, that the sea on the north coast of the island – the niece. “The only daughter of my sister,” said Paula Gouveia, who was dressed in black today.
   In the parish, marks still remain on the landscape, the houses, but especially in the minds of those who lived through the tragedy, the second anniversary of whose passing has planned initiatives by the Diocese of Funchal or the Regional Government.

   “Water came everywhere, I remember coming up there [the street] beds, flat shoes,” said Manuel Caires, 67, who does not forget the “cries and cries.”

   Along the wall of his house, where two years ago was, Jose Silva, the same age, he added: “I saw a house falls on top of a car. Prior to February 20 were in a corner of heaven, today people are in that fear. ”

   The Chairman of the Board of San Antonio – a village which recorded the worst accounts of the tragedy, 14 dead and three missing – said the parish is “practically rebuilt at the level of structures.”

   “Concrete can repair itself. The rest of the grievances, only time,” admitted Rui Santos, which leaves open a window of “hope” for the future: “Things can happen, when the recovery takes a long time, but you must have faith. “

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2. peter says:

   Monday, February 20, 2012 at 7:06 pm

   February 20th. We who come to live here, may speak of many tongs. Find it hard to learn another language. We all feel the same, no matter our nationality. We see, we hear, smell, touch and within our hearts we remember the sad day of February 20th Floods. I will remember the smell of soil, every time it rain hard, the sound of rain. My respect go to the brave people of Madeira.

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3. Jon says:

   Monday, February 20, 2012 at 9:37 pm

   Well said Peter.
   Remembered and Relived with Remorse.
   It was truly scary.
   Perhaps more so than reported.
   Not forgotten, ever.

   Just hope that the government has done all that it can do to prevent similar……

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4. peter says:

   Wednesday, February 22, 2012 at 3:17 pm

   from the.dnoticias “Governments have learned nothing in the February 20″
   BE shows environmental attacks in Madalena do Mar…..”Two years after the February 20, it seems that governments, regional and local government, have learned nothing from this disaster that killed more than four dozen people.” The conclusion is that this morning Roberto Almada was in Madalena do Mar, along with a deposit of debris from the work of connecting to the Arco da Calheta. The debris remains in the river and is in addition to an environmental attack, a major risk factor for the population.

   The coordinator ensures that the BE is not an isolated situation and that “a bit throughout the Region, there are environmental and security attacks,” the responsibility of the Regional Government and local authorities.

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