Floods & Tunnels - another global experience

burried in tunnels 
2-19-10

It was a fieldish place, but I noticed the humidity there. And I could smell the earth.

It went to this hill, so I went up on it, and was walking along the top side...the place had the dark light in it...and the humid moisture, right down into the earth...There were archway tunnel holes that had been dug into that hill. But most of the ones up top, where I was, they had been filled in with very dark soil earth.

I felt they had been, because that place would fill up with water. But there were newer ones down at the base? that were open.

I felt something behimd me, and stopped quietly, there by one tree, to turn and look? there was another girl there, walking, looking at the earth. She was walking along the top also, and she stopped by one covered in tunnel hole, brushing away some of the soil...and there was a hand/arm there. So I knew people were burried in this hill.

It felt like that was the hand of who she was looking for...

And I was looking, at all the other covered tunnels.

I was wondering, what was in the open tunnels...so going down the side of the hill, and walking along the base there, where the open tunnels were...

Inside of one, there were alive people in there. And I felt for a moment, to tell them that it was not a cozy hang out - that they would be burried in there.

But I guess they had not noticed the other closed up tunnels.

When I went near the opening though, I knew it was not my dream.
No one had seen or heard me, not even the girl on the hill, and I was right next to her.


2-21-2010

FUNCHAL, Madeira Islands – Rescue workers dug frantically Sunday to free cars and homes buried under heaps of caked mud in Madeira, after torrential flash floods and mudslides killed at least 40 people on the popular Portuguese island.

More than 120 others were injured and an unknown number of others were missing, possibly swept away or smothered, authorities said, adding that they expected the death toll to rise.

Heavy rain lashed the island Saturday, turning some streets in capital of Funchal into raging rivers of mud, water and debris. The storm — the worst to hit the island since 1993 — also displaced 250 people.

Cars that had been swept downhill by muddy waters had landed, crumpled, on the rooftops of houses downstream. Rescue teams who had dug out one car from chocolate brown slime were seen working inside it, possibly to recover more bodies.

The death toll "will likely increase, given the circumstances of this flood," regional social services spokesman Francisco Ramos said, adding that there were "great difficulties" in communications.

The flash floods were so powerful they carved their own paths down mountains and through the city, churning under bridges and even tearing some down. Residents had to cling to railings to make sure they weren't swept away. Cars were consumed by the force of the water, and the battered shells of overturned vehicles littered the streets.

Rescue workers wearing helmets helped people cross at some places where the flow of the water wasn't so strong. The water swept even a heavy fire truck downstream, slamming into a tree, while rescuers on inflatable rafts navigated through streets looking for trapped residents.

The weather improved Sunday, making it easier for rescue workers to move around. Still, some roads and bridges were washed away while others were littered with uprooted trees, cars and boulders, all hampering search and rescue efforts.