Some localities in the parish of Ponta Delgada, in the municipality of São Vicente, on the north coast of Madeira, are still isolated today due to the storm that affected the region on Christmas Day, with road cleaning work now underway.
“The isolated areas are Lombadas, in the highest part of the parish of Ponta Delgada, and also the connection between Ponta Delgada and Boaventura, at this moment, it is only possible to take a 4×4”, said the Mayor of São Paulo to Lusa. Vicente, José António Garcês.
The mayor is monitoring operations on the ground, at a time when the rain has lost its intensity, although the Regional Civil Protection Service maintains the yellow warning for precipitation on the north coast of Madeira until 18:00 today.
The storm caused 27 people to be evacuated from their homes for security reasons, but the homes suffered no significant damage other than flooding.
“As soon as there are safety conditions and cleaning is done, people return to their homes, because at this moment they are at the home of family or friends,” said José António Garcês, stressing that there are 20 residents of Ponta Delgada and 7 in Boaventura, parishes that, together with that of São Vicente, constitute the northern municipality.
Although it is not yet possible to draw a final balance of the damage, the mayor points to several damages in public infrastructure, namely in the access road to Lombadas and in the cemetery of Ponta Delgada, in the center of the parish, which was completely flooded.
“The people were working during the day yesterday [Friday], all night, at dawn, and this morning they have already resumed their work and obviously they are cleaning work, so that we can then assess the damage”.
And he reinforced: “We will quickly try to restore normality to these main roads, and then move on to the secondary roads”.
Cleaning operations are in charge of the Municipality of São Vicente and the parishes of Ponta Delgada and Boaventura, also involving construction companies that were hired for this purpose, with heavy machinery.