Madeira remembers

Monday 21st February 2011, 3:00PM GMT.

The special service held Sao Bento church (01153112)

THOUSANDS of people packed churches across Madeira yesterday to mark the first anniversary of the devastating floods there, which killed 42 and left more than 600 homeless.

In the community in Ribeira Brava, one of the worst hit areas with close links to Jersey, hundreds of people packed out São Bento Church for a special remembrance mass.

So many attended the service, which was led by Father Bernardino Trindade, a priest who regularly visits Jersey and is currently overseeing the Jersey Side by Side project in the village, that television screens broadcast the proceedings to the crowds outside.

More than £100,000 donated by people in Jersey to an appeal run by Jersey Side by Side during the weeks following the floods is helping to build an extension to a retirement home for elderly people left homeless by the floods.

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