Maria da Conceição Gomes, 70, understands the concern of the Funchal City Council when they evacuated all 41 residents from the block of flats where she lived, because of bad weather, on Wednesday, but today says that it was not necessary for them to be so pressurised into leaving.
Talking to JM, she said:
“They came and said we had to leave in five minutes. It was too fast. I know the message had been relayed but there was no need to hassle us out of our homes. The weather has been a lot worse on other occasions and we were not forced to evacuate then.”
Maria da Conceição Gomes is one of the 37 people who are temporarily housed in the Garrison Regiment No. 3 (RG3), in Funchal, after being displaced due to the effects of Storm Oscar, which put the south coast and the mountainous regions on red alert for 24 hours.
During that period, a historical maximum value of precipitation at a national level – 497.5 millimeters – was recorded. According to the Portuguese Institute of Atmosphere and Sea (IPMA), a situation that caused landslides and floods and put several homes at risk, resulting in a total of 95 displaced people, most of whom sought refuge with relatives.
The first 18 people, residents of the parish of Santo António, were installed in RG3 on Tuesday, and then, on Wednesday, another 19 arrived, coming from Block II of the Canto do Muro III Housing Complex, in the parish of São Gonçalo; a social housing infrastructure managed by the Funchal City Hall.
The municipality detected “problems in the structural stability” of the building, aggravated by the storm, and proceeded with the immediate evacuation of the 14 families, totalling 41 people.
“Here we are fine, we have everything,” said Maria da Conceição Gomes, as she prepared to leave RG3, on her way to a rehearsal for the marches of Santo António.
The elderly woman came with her daughter and granddaughter aged 6 years and now is worried about the fish in her aquarium and her flowers.
“I wanted to go home to see at least the flowers, to be if they are okay or not,” she said, then stressing that she wants to return to her home, a home she has lived in for more than 20 years.
However, not everyone is so eager to return home. Maria José Pestana, aged 68, also a resident of Block II of Canto do Muro for two decades, is adamant.
“I don’t want to go back there. I won’t. I don’t even want to imagine that I’m going back there,” she said as she left the room where she is currently staying with her husband, Nóe Pestana, 69, and her 10-year-old granddaughter.
The husband, however, is not so dismissive and says he prefers to “wait and see,” saying “when this is over, then we can talk about what we need to do. Our lives have been turned upside down and we need time to assess the situation, especially since we have been promised so many times that the flats would have the structural work needed to keep them safe. I am like St. Thomas: seeing is believing.”
Be that as it may, Noé Pestana states that the evacuation of the residents of that building should have happened “a long time ago,” because “the walls are all broken and the ceilings are all caving in. And that’s no lie!” He stressed.
Regarding their stay in RG3, the couple is unanimous in considering that “everything is fine, as the law dictates.”
The commander of the Military Zone of Madeira, Brigadier General Luís Monsanto, points out, for his part, that “there was no problem on the part of the people” in accepting the rules of the Garrison Regiment No. 3, stressing that the family nuclei, composed of two to five elements, are living in the same room and their lives are running normally.
“Right now, there are a total of 37 people, 26 adults, and 11 children,” he said, noting the ages range from 11 months to 76 years.
According to Luís Monsanto, the authorities’ forecast points to a stay of up to three weeks.
Samantha Gannon
info at madeira-weekly.com
