Adverse weather conditions have been affecting the movement of landings and take-offs at Madeira International Airport – Cristiano Ronaldo for two days, causing the cancellation of more than 130 flights.
The ANA – Aeroportos da Madeira page informs that all scheduled arrivals and departures are canceled until the end of the day, which also happens for TAP’s first Sunday flight to Lisbon at 01:00.
This situation affects many thousands of passengers who have no alternative to leaving the island.
The orange warnings issued by IPMA for maritime unrest and heavy rainfall turn yellow after 00:00 on Sunday.
In the latest balance released, the Regional Civil Protection Service of Madeira says that, with Madeira affected by the Emília depression, until 4:00 pm, 273 incidents were recorded, the most relevant being the collapse of the roof of a house, in the municipality of Santa Cruz, making it necessary to relocate a person.
This service mentions that 164 of these incidents were tree falls, 24 construction elements fell, 34 power grid outages, among other situations that involved 599 operational and 284 technical resources.
It also informs that Funchal was the municipality with the most intervention situations.
The captaincy of Funchal also extended warnings of sea disturbances and strong winds for the Madeira archipelago until 6pm on Sunday, with the north coast, mountainous areas and Porto Santo under an orange warning due to bad weather.
The regional maritime authority, based on forecasts from the Portuguese Institute of the Sea and Atmosphere (IPMA), indicates that the wind will blow “strong to very strong, gradually decreasing to fresh to very fresh from the evening onwards”.
As for the swell, on the north coast it is indicated that the waves will be between five and seven meters, decreasing to three to 3.5 meters, being in this order of height in the southern part.
The captaincy canceled the poor visibility warning issued, stating that it will be “good to moderate, sometimes poor until late morning”.
The captaincy insists on recommendations for the entire maritime community and population in general to take care when preparing for a trip to the sea, such as when they are at sea or in coastal areas, namely, reinforcing the mooring and surveillance of vessels, avoiding traveling in areas exposed to sea disturbances and not practicing recreational fishing.