Storms and flash floods have killed at least 42 people according to authorities on the island of Madeira. That toll "will likely increase, given the circumstances of this flood," said regional social services spokesman Francisco Ramos. He added that there were "great difficulties" in communication.

Officials fear that more bodies have been washed into the ocean after Saturday's deluge. Divers joined search and rescue teams to hunt for the missing. Meteorologists said the amount of rain that fell that one single day exceeded the monthly average.

Heavy rainstorms unleashed floods and mudslides that knocked down houses, destroyed bridges and blocked roads, cutting off some regions of the popular tourist destination.

The southern side of the island was hardest hit by Friday's freak storms, with roads blocked by fallen trees and rocks.

Miguel Albuquerque, the mayor of Madeira's capital Funchal, said some areas above the city were particularly badly hit, likening the scene to Dante's Inferno:

"What happened in the higher parts of Funchal was Dantesque," he said in televised remarks. "People were swept away in their cars, houses were swept away."

TV pictures showed mudslides sweeping cars and debris though the city's streets, home to 100,000 residents. Officials evacuated the lower part of Funchal, as floodwaters submerged a shopping mall and three underground parking levels.

Help needed

Local authorities confirmed that 120 people were receiving hospital treatment in emergency wards. The officials also announced they were making temporary shelters available for several hundred people left homeless.

A British Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said a British national was among the victims.

The Lisbon government has decreed three days of national mourning and the cabinet will convene a special meeting on Monday to discuss the Madeira floods.

Portugal's Prime Minister Jose Socrates went to the region on Saturday night and promised "all necessary aid so that Madeira can immediately start the work of recuperation."

"I am absolutely saddened and shocked with the images, with the consequences of this calamity," Socrates said.

The head of the regional government held talks late on Saturday with European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso in a bid to get EU aid.

The island's most famous native, international soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo, also promised to help.

"Nobody can remain indifferent to this huge catastrophe, least of all me who was born and grew up in Madeira," he was quoted as saying on his agent's Web site.

Portuguese media said the storm was the deadliest in Madeira since 1993, when eight people died.

nrt/Reuters/AFP
Editor: Toma Tasovac