Rescue teams in more than 400 vehicles worked all night Sunday to clear the caked mud, boulders and snapped trees that swept through the capital of Funchal, authorities said.
Several roads remained blocked by debris from Saturday’s raging torrent of water and mud, which swept away people, houses and vehicles on the steep-sloped Atlantic Ocean island.
Only four people were officially unaccounted for on Monday, but officials said there could be further victims.
More than 120 people were injured.
Parts of downtown Funchal were cordoned off as crews dug into a shopping mall’s mud-filled underground parking lot where officials feared more bodies may be found.
The head of the regional government, Alberto Joao Jardim, told people to stay at home Monday if they could. Madeira’s schools canceled classes for some 30,000 students. Locals say Saturday’s storm was the worst in living memory. Officials say a month’s rain fell on the island in eight hours.
The Portuguese government was holding a special Cabinet meeting Monday and was expected to announce three days of national mourning for the victims.
It may also grant financial aid to rebuild Madeira’s many destroyed roads and bridges. The regional government says it has no estimate yet of its financial needs.
Portugal Telecom said 85 percent of the island’s cellular and fixed-line capacity was restored by late Sunday.
The victims, in white body bags, were taken to Funchal’s international airport where officials have set up a makeshift morgue. Among the dead was a local firefighter who was swept away in a muddy torrent as he tried to save a woman, his colleagues said.
