FUNCHAL, Madeira Islands — Rescue workers in Madeira dug through heaps of mud, boulders and debris Sunday, searching for victims buried by floods and mudslides that have killed at least 42 people on the popular Portuguese island.
Residents looking for missing loved ones were directed by local authorities to the resort’s international airport, where a makeshift morgue has been set up.
Social-services spokesman Francisco Jardim Ramos said not all the bodies had been identified. The center is equipped with psychiatric-, psychological- and social-counseling services, he said.
More than 120 other people were injured and an unknown number were missing, possibly swept away or smothered, authorities said, adding that the death total could still rise. Of 248 people who were forced to flee their homes for temporary shelters, 85 have been allowed to return home, Ramos said.
Late Sunday, a spokeswoman for the British Foreign Office confirmed that a British national had died but declined to give further details. The spokeswoman spoke on condition of anonymity in line with department policy.
The Foreign Office also said a small number of Britons had been hospitalized on Madeira. The island is popular with British tourists, who for centuries have regarded wines made in Madeira as a luxury product.
The worst storm to hit Madeira since 1993 lashed the south of the Atlantic Ocean island, including the capital, Funchal, on Saturday, turning some streets into torrents of mud, water and rolling debris.
“We heard a very loud noise, like rolling thunder, the ground shook, and then we realized it was water coming down,” said Simon Burgbage of Britain.
Madeira is the main island, with a population of about 250,000, of a Portuguese archipelago of the same name in the Atlantic just more than 300 miles off the west coast of Africa.
Funchal residents and visitors must now contend with a lack of fresh water until destroyed infrastructure is repaired, the head of water services said.
