Visit to Madeira 21st-28th Feb 2010

[Rune EG]

Hello everyone!
I have just returned back home to Norway after a week on Madeira. My wife and I arrived Sunday 21st Feb noon time, which was just 24 hrs after the major weather tragedy. We were lucky as our hotel was not too much affected by the problems, except that we could not drink the water (not even for brushing teeth). Some tourist and locals got sick. Several hotels had lost the water due to the water and wind.

We walked around in the city of Funchal, where it was allowed to go (half of the city centre was still closed yesterday). There were massive damages, and a lot of people with shops, offices, appartments on the ground floor, were affected. The military took charge and they followed the situation constantly from helicopters, marine vssels etc. There are still abt 25 people missing, and they think many of them ended in the ocean. abt. 300 people have lost their homes.

We had the opportunity to have a long conversation with Mr Oliveira, the owner of the Madeira wine producer with the same name. This took place on Monday 22nd, just two days after it all happened. The problems had made a lot of impact on him. In one of his storage areas in the centre of Funchal, where he had a lot of old Madeira stored, there had been water up to 3 metres high (abt 10 feet), but was at the time of speaking down to abt 1.5 metres (5 feet). He told that big barrels of Madeira were floating around in the storage room, and this will of course be a huge insurance claim. However, it cannot be replaced like making a new car. These are old wines and irrereplaceable. Mr Oliveira informed that there had been raining practically every day since Nov 09, and he described the soil as a "cholocate mousse" where the soil was increasing in size and heavy things on the top would then move (such as big stones), and described the situation as "very dangerous".

All tours around the island were immediately cancelled by the authorities. Especially the western side from Funchal to Ribeira Brava and further west was very bad. On Thursday they opened up for bus trips to the eastern side incl parts of the mountain. We had a fantastic trip all the way up to Santana on the north east tip. We could see a lot of big trees having been cut as match sticks, and smaller areas of sliding mud. Two days later, on Saturday, this area was hit by bad weather, so we were very luck.

I must say that the Madeira people did whatever possible to help us having a kind of holiday, and all the private people together with police and military really worked around the clock to clean up. It was raining every day, but most with short showers. Even two days we sun and abt 21-22 degrees C. We will go back, but would prefer that the soil went from "cholocate mousse" to more normal conditions.

I hope this was of interest for the readers of FTLOP.

Best regards
Rune E. Gustavsen, Norway

[Roy Hersh]

Rune,

Thank you for taking some time to post here and give us perspective. It is heartbraking to hear of the losses on the island, both in a personal context with the lives that have been lost, as well as the liquid treasures. Hopefully in time things will get back to "normal" and the recovery and clean up efforts, along with the humanitarian relief efforts will bring back a semblance of order to the chaos that took place.

Again, your impressions are very much appreciated. Thanks for sharing!

Sincerely,

Roy

[Eric Ifune]

Thank you for the update from me also.
The loss of life is heartbreaking.
Hearing of the loss of cask wine by D'Oliveira is also disheartening.

[Reidar Andersen]

Contacted Isabel at Borges and got the very good news , quote....

"Fortunattly here in our place is all ok and with our staff and families too.
We hope Funchal in a few months will be normal."

I was worried since they are so close to a river....

[Peter W. Meek]

Rivers are a two-edged sword: they can flood, but they can also drain things away.

[Niklas J]

It seems Barbeito is affected in some way too - don't know how seriously yet though. Will find out tomorrow when talking to them. They're in the vicinity to Cabo Girao...

Camara de Lobos today was lovely though and a great visit at Henriques & Henriques -followed by a grand tasting - was memorable.

Best,

Niklas

[Niklas J]

Ok, confirmed. Barbeito's Diogos shop downtown Funchal is severely affected - the museum in the cellar as well, the founder's Columbus collection. Will meet Mr. Ricardo Diogo in the end of the month and then he will most likely tell me more...

Best,

Niklas J