Depression Bruna brings 125 incidents and a displaced family to Madeira

Storm damage across Madeira

Depression Bruna brought heavy rain, strong wind and rough seas to Madeira from Saturday, 7 November. Civil protection logged 26 incidents between 08:00 and 18:00 that day, mostly fallen trees and road clearances, and 111 between 08:00 and 23:00. Valter Ferreira, the civil protection operations support commander, put the total at 125 incidents since 08:00 on Saturday when he spoke on Sunday morning, and said 306 operatives and 122 land vehicles had been deployed. Funchal recorded the most incidents, 55 by 23:00, followed by Santa Cruz with 22.

Funchal55

Santa Cruz22

Câmara de Lobos9

Calheta9

Machico5

São Vicente5

Ribeira Brava3

Ponta do Sol1

Santana1

Funchal

55 incidents

Santa Cruz

22 incidents

Câmara de Lobos

9 incidents

Calheta

9 incidents

Machico

5 incidents

São Vicente

5 incidents

Ribeira Brava

3 incidents

Ponta do Sol

1 incidents

Santana

1 incidents

Data from the article text

Fallen trees, floods and a displaced family

Of the 111 incidents signalled by the regional service by 23:00 on Saturday, 47 were fallen trees and 28 were floods. Another 16 involved road and signage clearances and eight were mass movements of earth, with the rest covering collapsed structures, electrical failures and unblocking work. In Santo António da Serra, in the municipality of Santa Cruz, flooding inundated a house and forced a family of five from their home. The municipal civil protection service said the family was receiving support from municipal services. Rain fell heavily and the drainage network could not cope, leaving vehicles floating. A gust of 131 km/h was recorded at Chão do Areeiro.

Fallen trees47

Floods28

Road and signage clearance16

Mass movements8

Fallen trees

47 incidents

Floods

28 incidents

Road and signage clearance

16 incidents

Mass movements

8 incidents

Data from the article text

The municipal civil protection service in Santa Cruz counted 19 incidents between 07:00 and 21:00 on Saturday. These included tree falls on the Estrada do Garajau and on Regional Road 202 between Poiso and Santo da Serra, which forced traffic restrictions. Eight of those 19 were resolved by the Santa Cruz fire brigade and 11 by the municipal service with other bodies. No casualties had been reported in that update.

Flights, roads and events

Dozens of flights were cancelled and cruise ship calls at the port of Funchal were called off. Strong wind and poor visibility left thousands of passengers without flights on Saturday, and airport movements remained restricted with several cancellations and diversions through the day. Several road access points were closed in Funchal, Câmara de Lobos, Ribeira Brava and Ponta do Sol, mainly in high and coastal areas. The seafront pedestrian zone in Ribeira Brava and the quay on Porto Santo island were also closed off. All hiking trails in the autonomous region were shut and several sporting activities were cancelled. Two I Liga football matches were postponed.

Warnings and outlook

The Portuguese weather institute IPMA had an orange wind warning in force until 00:00 on Sunday, 8 November, and has since lowered it to yellow. An orange rainfall warning, for showers described as at times heavy, persistent and accompanied by thunder, ran until 03:00 before also moving to yellow. Speaking to RTP Notícias early on Sunday, Valter Ferreira said conditions had improved.

“Despite the apparent improvement in conditions over the last few hours, today will still prove to be very unstable.”

IPMA expects mainland Portugal, Madeira and the Azores to be affected from Sunday until Friday, 13 November, by rain, wind and rough seas, as the depression sits north of the Azores. SIC commentator Duarte Costa, a climate change specialist, expects the depression to persist until Friday with intense rain, thunder and gusts of up to 100 km/h. He also warned of a possible new storm that could affect Madeira in particular.