Flash floods

The list published below records every flash flood (aluvião) that has occurred in Madeira and about which we have been able to obtain some information. It should be noted, however, that the flood of 1724 was not the first to cause damage: Mouquet, who was here in 1601, says, though without giving dates, ‘that the waters that come down from the mountains sometimes destroy bridges and houses throughout the island’.

18 November 1724

The damage from this flash flood was felt above all in the parish (freguesia) of Machico, where 26 people died and more than 80 dwellings collapsed. In the Anno Histórico, Father Francisco de Santa Maria, referring to the flood of 1724, says that ‘the island of Madeira suffered a storm and deluge so great that it destroyed the town (vila) of Machico, part of that of Santa Cruz (‘Holy Cross’) and many other places and localities of the same island, and the city of Funchal also suffered great damage and much ruin, both to its walls and to the settlement, from the flooding of the Ribeira do Pinheiro (Santa Luzia) that divides it’.

18 November 1765

Heavy rain swelled the streams that cross Funchal on this day, destroying the Ponte da Praça (‘square bridge’) and causing considerable damage to other bridges in the city. The waters of the Ribeira da Praça, or Ribeira de João Gomes (‘João Gomes’s stream’), swept the Englishman Moita (?) out to sea, and he was never seen again.

9 October 1803

On this sadly memorable day a great flood swept across the fields of Madeira and destroyed a considerable part of the city, causing not only enormous material damage but also the loss of several hundred lives. It may without doubt be regarded as the greatest calamity to have struck this island in the long span of five centuries. We would stray too far if we attempted a detailed description of this terrible catastrophe, and so we confine ourselves to a few brief notes, hastily gathered from the chronicles of the time.

Some rain had fallen, on and off, in the ten or twelve days before 9 October 1803. On that day, at about 8 in the morning, rain that was not especially heavy began to fall in Funchal. It kept up steadily until 8 in the evening, yet nothing suggested that so terrible a flood was imminent. Then the rumble of thunder began to be heard, and the rain, accompanied by some wind, was now falling in veritable torrents. By half past 8 the waters of the streams were overflowing their banks and spreading with a great roar through the neighbouring streets, beginning their work of destruction and death. It was a true deluge.

The terror that seized the inhabitants is beyond description. It was made all the greater by the suddenness of the event, which caught a great many by surprise, with no chance of sheltering from the danger that threatened everyone. Death overtook many as they fled: they were swept away by the violence of the currents or struck by the collapsing houses and walls.

The district of Santa Maria Maior (‘St Mary Major’) suffered most from the storm. The João Gomes stream, swollen by the abundance and violence of its waters, burst its banks at three different points, forming as many raging currents that caused the greatest damage and claimed several dozen lives. Whole streets and countless dwellings and other buildings were swept into the sea, including the parish church, known as the church of Our Lady of Calhau (Nossa Senhora do Calhau), which stood on the left bank of the stream, between the present Rua de Santa Maria and Rua Nova de Santa Maria (‘new street of St Mary’). In one house in this street 21 people were buried alive, and in a building on the Pelourinho (‘pillory’) a British subject and 15 members of his household died. It is estimated that in the district of Santa Maria Maior alone about 200 people perished in the flood.

The buildings along the Santa Luzia stream also suffered badly. Above the Ponte do Bom Jesus the waters cut new courses along both banks, and caused considerable damage, above all in Rua dos Ferreiros (‘blacksmiths’), where several dwellings and shops collapsed. The same happened in Rua dos Tanoeiros and to various buildings on the left bank of that stream which formed Rua Direita (‘straight street’); these were swept away by the violence of the current. A contemporary account of the event says: ‘Whole streets disappeared with their inhabitants, and others, flooded with water and mud, left owners and tenants reduced to extreme destitution. A large part of the parish of Santa Maria Maior, together with its church, the oldest in the city, no longer exists, along with a good many of its unfortunate inhabitants; the rest, scattered here and there, flooded and abandoned, presents to the eyes of the feeling man a spectacle of grief, ruin and dismay. The streets called Direita, Tanoeiros, Valverde, Santa Maria, Hospital Velho and others were carried into the sea with an incredible multitude of inhabitants.’

Outside Funchal, the places that suffered most from the dreadful flood were Machico, Santa Cruz, Campanário, Ribeira Brava and Calheta, while the damage in the parishes of the north of the island was relatively slight.

Of the town (vila) of Machico, the archive of its parish church records the following: ‘…it demolished the wall of the stream, brought down the bridge and invaded the town so that the waters rose to a height of three côvados in the church and in all the streets. This flood threatened everyone with death; but an evident miracle saved them all, except fourteen people who perished, swept away by the waters or buried in their houses.’ It also demolished the ancient and historic chapel of the Lord of Miracles (Senhor dos Milagres). Its image was found some days later on the high seas by an American full-rigged ship, which had it placed in Funchal Cathedral (the Sé) (Sé do Funchal).

The damage the flood caused in the other parishes mentioned was equally considerable, and there too many lives were lost.

Contemporary reports of the events differ considerably on the number of people who died as victims of these floods; one account of the terrible event puts the dead and missing at about a thousand. Anyone who sets the approximate number of the dead at six hundred seems not to be far from the truth, most of them in the municipality (concelho) of Funchal.

The governor and captain-general at the time was Dom José Manuel da Câmara, who promptly issued a public notice (edital) ordering the immediate measures that the circumstances called for. The authorities’ first concern was to find shelter for those left homeless, who were very numerous. Public buildings, various government offices, many outbuildings of churches, barracks and fortresses, and also a good number of private houses were set aside as temporary lodging for them. Among the measures taken by the governor, the most notable was an absolute ban on raising the prices of foodstuffs, under threat of severe punishment for offenders.

The main cause of the harm done by the flood was the lack of channelling of the streams. Belatedly, the government in mainland Portugal resolved to carry out this long-desired improvement, sending to Madeira Brigadier Reinaldo Oudinot to direct the works; he arrived here on 19 February 1804. He showed the greatest competence in the post entrusted to him and worked in it with astonishing energy, managing within a relatively short time to channel the three streams that run through Funchal. In December 1800 he reported to the central government that, despite the great storms and severe winter weather there had been shortly before, the walls had withstood the violent impact of the waters and given clear proof of the solidity of their construction. Oudinot died in this city on 11 February 1807, and in memory of his services his name was given to the street on the left bank of the João Gomes stream, between Campo da Barca (‘boat field’) and Praça dos Lavradores.

One interesting detail: since the chancel of the church of Our Lady of Calhau had been left standing, the royal warrant (provisão régia) of 12 March 1805 ordered that it be preserved in the state in which the flash flood had left it, as a reminder for future generations of the event that had been the most calamitous ever to befall the inhabitants of this island. In December 1835 the part of the church that the flash flood had spared was demolished, and the União market was built on the site. The market was recently pulled down to widen the street that runs past it.

26 October 1815

After the great flash flood of 9 October 1803, this was perhaps the greatest to have ravaged the island. A representation on the damage caused by this flood of 26 October 1815, addressed by the Municipal Council (Câmara Municipal) of Funchal to the Prince Regent, the future John VI, states that it was incomparably greater than the flood of 1803. Yet neither in the number of its victims nor in the damage it caused did it reach the scale of the earlier one, despite the enormous losses it brought upon the inhabitants of Funchal.

As had happened on other occasions, it was the raging currents of the streams that caused the greatest damage. Especially at certain points along the banks where there were no walls to contain and direct the flow, the waters burst out of their beds, swept over the adjoining land and cut a new course through streets and houses. They caused not only incalculable damage but also the utmost panic among the inhabitants, some of whom fell victim to the untameable force of the current. This is what happened with the waters of the Ribeira de São João, which, seeking a new course, violently swept away some twenty houses between the Ponte de São Paulo, at the end of Rua da Carreira (‘track’), and the mouth of the stream.

In the streets along the Ribeira de Santa Luzia the damage was also great: some houses were damaged, and so, at several points, were the stream’s walls.

Throughout the island there was considerable damage, and several people died, swept away by the force of the currents.

The horrors of the great flood of 1803, still vivid in everyone’s memory, heightened the panic among the inhabitants, the great majority of whom believed there was no possibility of escaping a death that seemed to them inevitable.

28 October 1842

For fifteen days a light drizzle had been falling almost without interruption. By 9 a.m. on 24 October the rain was already heavy, and by 3 p.m. it was pouring down in torrents. The streams burst their beds and spread violently over the adjoining land, causing great damage.

The streets of the district of Santa Maria Maior, the Pelourinho, Rua dos Medinas and others besides were completely flooded, the water reaching the second and third floors of the houses. In many streets of the city boats sailed about to rescue, with great difficulty, the many families who were crying out for mercy from the top floors and rooftops. Screams of terror could be heard everywhere. One of the men to whom many of the unfortunate flood victims owed their lives was the citizen Joaquim Dias de Almeida, but many others also distinguished themselves, as the Funchal newspapers Imparcial and Defensor recorded at the time. The steep paved streets of Santa Clara, Pico, Bela Vista and Incarnação were turned into torrential streams. The district of the English Cemetery was emptied of people, all its residents being taken in and sheltered, with every comfort, by a wealthy landowner who lived at the end of Rua da Bela Vista. A large part of the city was destroyed and houses were ruined to their foundations.

Many families of modest means were left poor. The losses amounted to hundreds of contos de réis (conto: one million réis).

On the 26th, two days later, the south wind unleashed a fearful storm in the harbour of Funchal. The raging waves leapt over the walls of the Pontinha and at times lapped the levada path (esplanada) of the Ilhéu. During the afternoon ten or eleven vessels were dashed to pieces on the rocks of the beach at Funchal. The crews and watchmen who were on board were miraculously rescued by the customs house guard Carvalho and by some exceptionally daring seamen, Joaquim Dias de Almeida distinguishing himself, as always, in these disasters. 17, 18, 19 and 20 November 1848. On these days there were great floods, chiefly in the municipality (concelho) of Santana, where many productive and valuable improvements (benfeitorias, tenant-made works on the land) were swept away by the waters. In Funchal the streams ran violently but, although extremely full, caused no appreciable damage.

5 and 6 January 1856

After exceptionally heavy rain, the current of the Ribeira de João Gomes brought down a great deal of debris, which rose above the retaining walls between the mouth of the stream and the Campo da Barca. Unable to flow freely, the waters flooded the Rua de Santa Maria, the side streets that cross it, the Rua do Ribeirinho de Baixo and the square known as the Largo do Pelourinho, causing great destruction at all these points. The Ribeira de Santa Luzia did no damage, although it too became choked with debris, but the Ribeira de São João caused no small damage, especially near the chapel. At Ribeira Brava, Tabua, Serra de Água, Ponta do Sol, Paul do Mar and other places the waters also caused great devastation. 1 January 1876. The floods of this day caused notable damage only in the parish (freguesia) of Madalena. 2 and 3 October 1895. The flash flood (aluvião) of these two days caused great damage in the parishes of São Vicente, Faial, Ponta Delgada, Boa Ventura and Seixal. In the last of these parishes the landowner Manoel Inisio da Costa Lira died. The streams of Funchal carried a great deal of water.

8 and 9 November 1901

The exceptionally heavy rain that fell on Funchal on these two days flooded the streets and roads, damaged many of the latter and caused several landslips, especially along the Levada de Santa Luzia. 25 and 26 February 1920. On these two days a violent storm of wind and rain struck, causing countless losses across the whole island. The streams that run through the city carried a great deal of water but did not overflow. There was, however, flooding in several places, owing to the heavy rain and to the blocking of the Nora, Til and Louros brooks. In the Santa Maria quarter boats even moved through the streets to carry people from one place to another, and it is said that more than 500 people were left homeless across the island. The damage done by the north-westerly wind to trees, cane fields and many other crops was incalculable. On the Lazareto road a man died while making his way home at night, and on the Pontinha mole another man died who was working at the capstan (cabrestante). Such was the force of the wind on the 25th and part of the 26th that it was dangerous to go out even in the streets of the city. On the afternoon of the 25th the motor-car service in Funchal was suspended because of the wind.

The town (vila) of Ribeira Brava was in great danger of being destroyed by the waters. The image of St Benedict was carried out in procession, and prayers were afterwards offered in the parish church. At Machico, Santa Cruz, São Vicente and Camacha very serious damage was recorded, and a woman and a child died in the last of these parishes. Several fishing boats from Câmara de Lobos disappeared with their crews. The boat Arriaga, from Porto Santo, carrying 16 passengers, was driven southwards by the storm; it was found by the British steamer Andorinha, which took the passengers aboard, while the boat put in at the Savage Islands (Selvagens). On the 28th torrential rain fell again, and on 2 March the north-westerly wind blew once more with great violence, with heavy showers that lasted until the early hours of the 3rd.

5 and 6 March 1921

On these days heavy rain, accompanied by thunderstorms, fell throughout the island, causing flooding and damage at Machico, Ribeira Brava, etc., etc. At Machico the waters rose in some places almost to the first floor of the houses, and at Ribeira Brava four children died, three when a building collapsed and one swept away by the waters.

Besides the twelve flash floods mentioned above, we have found a record in an old manuscript that in 1611 there was a great flood in Funchal. Among the notable damage it caused, it largely destroyed the parish church of Santa Maria Maior, which then stood in the street now called Hospital Velho. A new church was afterwards built near the present public fountain known as the Calhau fountain, and this church was swept into the sea by the flash flood of 1803. We also have a record of another flash flood, in 1707, which caused considerable damage throughout the island.