Hi!
First of all, I would like to announce that, fortunately the storm was barely noticeable in my zone. I live very near the centre of the city, somewhere midways between it and the suburbs, in a hill (like you saw on the pictures i posted earlier on). On the very bottom of the hill, there is a stream as well, but it never gave any problems to it's surroundings.
My plants are all fine, only the excess of rain might have a bad impact, but since the temperatures are not that cold (19ºC) I think they won't mind having wet feet for a while.
Last Thursday we had dull weather with rain all day (something that the northern people usually call a "Scottish mist") Then Friday was a bright day without a single cloud in the sky. I went down to keep building the greenhouse and i could feel that slight "burning" sensation from the sunrays in my skin, the first time I felt it this year, which means the spring is really about to begin.
Then suddenly, yesterday it was a total nightmare... My sister went out at night and arrived home 8AM in the morning. She said me she came by bus and when she left Funchal the city was untouched, in spite of the rain we had since the 2AM. One hour later, the place she left was like this:
That is supposed to be a Tunnel, and the Disco that she went is just about 20 yards from the tunnel's entrance. The amount of water running towards the sea harbour is unbelievable!
I had other 2 friends that were lucky as well, one is my neighbour next door who went to have his swimming training in the morning, and luckily he managed to go out of the chaos that could be felt in the centre of the city by noon time. It's partially underwater, I barely could even recognize a few parts of it while they shown them on the TV. The streams overflew and dragged away cars, people, trees, boulders, dirt and lots of debris. A few concrete embankments and walls just succumbed to the water pressure. Later on I heard that a crane felt off and killed 2 people that were witnessing the catastrophe. Many people have this morbid compulsion to transgress the safety measures imposed by the Civil Protection Headquarters, and I believe that a few deaths could be avoided if everybody undertook the orders and stood at home.
A few bridges felt of including the one just in front of Mercado dos Lavradores.
The Infante Roundabout pictured above with it's famous water fountains and armillary sphere is also at risk, as it's foundations were badly damaged by the water channel that passes underground, just bellow it. I have not been there yet, but i heard that the water pressure was so high that the road asphalt cracked and a part of it rose up. It's very saddening to hear that this estimated ancient landmark is at risk of collapsing.
Here you can watch a terrifying video where the water channel that passes just next to the university campus is shown. The amount of water running down from the hills is just overwhelming! That ditch has 25 yards of dept!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8526288.stmI also believe that many of the Bougainvillea that were ornamenting all water channels on the city
are no more, and that they were responsible for clogging up the undergrounds and making the water overrun the channels to the roads. But I'm not worried cause they sprout rampantly from their old rootstock
We had a similar event that happened on October 1993, and the city was repaired in a blink of an eye, so hopefully this time it will take even less time.
Lastly I would thank for the support PM's and emails many of you sent me, even yesterday the phone did not stop ringing as my family in Australia, South Africa and Venezuela were worried about us as well.
Now today its sunny again, and no clouds in the sky, a delusive day to what happened yesterday. But i shall continue with my project
Regards!
Michael
